Dragonflies galore at Crymlyn Bog, Swansea

Keeled Skimmer

Date:  18 June 2017

Location:  Crymlyn Bog, Swansea

Not far from where I live is an awesome little nature reserve called Crymlyn Bog; a designated SSSI with an array of flora and fauna.

The weather was brilliant (about 25 degrees) so we planned to go to the reserve looking for lizards that usually basked on the boardwalks.  Unfortunately, it looked like the lizards were hiding, perhaps the weather was to hot? On the other hand dragonflies were out in good numbers.

Here are some of my pics from the walk...

Crymlyn Bog information sign

Keeled Skimmer Dragonfly

Keeled Skimmers mating

Damselfly

4 Spotted Chaser

Black Tailed Skimmer

The fantastic boardwalks of Crymlyn Bog (usually lots of lizards on the sides)

Apart from the wonderful dragonflies there were quite a few birds around including Sedge Warbler, juvenile robin and a fabulous buzzard that was perched on a nearby lamppost.

Sedge Warbler

Juvenile Robin

Buzzard

Buzzard in flight right over our head

Horses in a nearby field

Kingfisher at Forest Farm, Cardiff

Date:  15 June 2017

Location:  Forest Farm, Cardiff

Without doubt, one of my favourite bird is the kingfisher. I haven't seen many in my life and it was only last year I saw my first one. A spectacular, colourful little bird that is so charming to see and I get so excited when I get a glimpse of one.

Recently on Facebook I noticed there had been a few spotted in a lovely little place called 'Forest Farm' in Whitechurch, Cardiff. A great place and a haven to wildlife with some really good bird hides. We got comfortable in one of the hides and waited; whilst waiting we meet a lot of lovely people all eager to to get a glimpse of this beautiful bird.

A few other birds made an appearance, including a grey heron, green woodpecker and moorhens:

Grey Heron

Adult moorhen

Juvenile Moorhen

It must have been well over an hour before we got our reward, my partner Dan spotted it in the back of the pond. It was quite hard to see at first, with the orange breast blending into the reeds. But as soon as he started flying, with that striking blue, there was no way you could miss him.

The beautiful kingfisher at Forest Farm

Unfortunately, he was only around for about a minute and never returned when we were there. We didn't mind, we saw him and that was enough to make us smile!

I will definitely make Forest Farm one of my 'go to' birding places, it's great! Here are some of the other treats we saw:

Closeup of a Magpie from one of the hides

Great Tit

Not far from the education building we discovered this little patch of wild flowers; isn't beautiful? I would much rather see flowers like this than a well mowed lawn :)

Red tailed bumble bee collecting pollen from a cornflower.

30 Days Wild 2017 - Star Species

This will be my 3rd year to do the Wildlife Trust's  #30DaysWild challenge and I thought I would do something a bit different.

For 2017 I will be concentrating on one species a day and finding out lots of interesting facts about it. Whether it's a flower, mammal, bird, fungi, insect etc. I will try and discover (and hopefully photograph) something of interest daily and learn more about it by researching the internet and reading books. I will also try and create some artwork inspired by it using different mediums.

So this year, my #30DaysWild will be all about #StarSpecies - Click here to read my #30DaysWild blog

30 Days Wild 2016

What a month June was! I had been excited about doing the Wildlife's Trust 30 Days Wild for ages and had a few things already lined up for it. Unfortunately it was only a few days in when I got really bad news regarding my best friend's mum - she had past away unexpectedly from an heart attack.

It was a very sad time and I could relate to the grief my friend was going through (I lost my dad many years ago). Despite it being a very heartbreaking start to June I carried on 30 Days Wild and I found comfort in surrounding myself in nature.

These are some of my favourite photos and experiences from the 30 days (click on the link under the pic to read more)

Goldfinch in Swansea car park

Scarlet lily beetles destroying my lilies

Painted lady Butterfly - the first one of 2016

Common Blue Butterfly on a cycle path

Beautiful Puffins on Skomer Island

Juvenile Starlings in the garden

Monty the Osprey at the Osprey Centre

Lizard closeup on the boardwalks

Lifetime achievement! Spotted Kingfisher

Lazy fox in a local graveyard

Squirrel at he Swansea Vale Nature Reserve

Swans and geese on Fendrod Lake, Swansea

So as you can see I did and saw lots. I also learnt loads too and with the help of the 30DaysWild Facebook group and Twitter account I got lots of answers to my queries and everyone was so helpful and friendly.

On a rainy Day 26 I decided to dig out my paintbrushes and tried to paint a kingfisher that I had seen a few days earlier. I was happy with the result and have now got my creative mojo back - thanks 30DaysWild!

You can read the whole of my #30Days Wild here

Day 30 - 30 Days Wild - A look back over the month

* Today's random act of wildness -  a lookback over #30DaysWild

So today is the last day of #30DaysWild - what an amazing 30 days it has been. When i started I set myself a few goals to achieve in the 30 days they were...

1. Spot a kingfisher - Check :)
2. A visit to Skomer Island - Check :)
3. Plant wild flowers and see what they attract - Check :)
4. Go camping
5. Listen to dawn chorus 
6. Go star gazing - Check :)
7. Making my own suet coconuts for the birds
8. Litter pick to create a better environment for wildlife
9. Make a tasty moth syrup and see what shows up - Check :)
10. Do a reptile survey for ARC - Check :)
11. Trip to see the Ospreys at Dyfi - Check :)
12. Create my own bird table
13. Beach combing - Check :)

I only managed to do 8 out of 13, but I am very happy with what we achieved. The main one was seeing a kingfisher - that was a pretty awesome day to finally see the one bird I wanted to see all my life. The other great day was seeing the puffins at Skomer, I have been before but I never get bored of seeing those lovely little birds.

Some interesting facts from this month's #30DaysWild:

• Spotted over 100 different animals (including 60 different species of birds)
• Visited over 15 places
• Saw my first kingfisher (did I already mention that?)
• Met lots of lovey people through #30DaysWild Twitter & Facebook Pages.

Even though #30dayswild have now ended I will still continue to 'Stay Wild' and will document it on my other blog http://sands-walks.blogspot.co.uk/ :)

Roll on 2017, until then 'Stay Wild'!

Day 29 - 30 Days Wild - Fledglings in the garden

* Today's random act of wildness - Fledglings in the garden *

It's the last but one day today - it has gone so quick! This evening was spend in my shed looking at the birds in the garden. I noticed we are getting a second brood of starling fledglings and a few younf sparrows show up too.

I haven't just fed these birds for the last 30 days I have been feeding them for years and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Cute Starling fledgling

Starling fledgling having a drink in the bird bath

Starling fledgling with adult

This is what I feed them - suet pellets and mealworm

Suet cake (I also feed them fatballs, peanuts etc...)

Sparrows, the one on the right is a fledgling

Male sparrow

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar

Day 28 - 30 Days Wild - Pond dipping

* Today's random act of wildness - Pond dipping *

Day 28 and what horrid weather - it had rained almost all day! Finally at around 7.30pm the sun began to come up so we decided to go to Penllergare Valley Woods, a local woodland to see if there was any activity in the small pond there. Earlier in the year when we visited there were lots of tadpoles, so hopefully we would see some frogs or toads.

This is what we discovered...

The small pond full of lilies

A young toad in the grass

Young frog with water boatman 

Damsel Nymph

Newt Larvae - you can tell it's a newt tadpole because of the feathery gills around the head, distinguishing them from frog and toad tadpoles.

An adult newt, the water was too murky to tell if it was Palmate or smooth (definitely not great crested)

Another newt larvae

Young frog...

...this one still had it's tail

A huge dragonfly nymph

The sun starts setting and we decided it was time to leave.

Wildling enjoying climbing trees!