An afternoon walk down Rhossili, Gower

Date:  28 September 2018

Location:  Rhossili, Gower
Weather:  Sunny with a slight breeze

A long over-due walk down the outstanding beautiful Gower and it's jewel in the crown, Rhossili 

It's been awhile since we ventured down Gower, so seeing as we had the afternoon free we decided to head to Rhossili, one of the most glorious parts of the Gower Peninsula. It is only a 40 minute drive and the weather was beautiful.

Rhossili is owned by the National Trust, so not being members we had to pay for parking (£2.50 for 2 hours, £5.00 for all day). There's plenty of parking and a few eateries around, but we just wanted some fresh air and to see what wildlife we could discover.

We headed straight towards the Worm and it wasn't long before we heard that familiar squawking of Choughs. We could see two, but unfortunately couldn't get a pic, but it didn't matter as it was just great to see them again.

Arty photo with Worms Head in the background

We were debating whether to walk over to the Worm, but we thought we may have left it too late and we didn't want to be marooned there. So we sat on the cliffs and scanned the ocean and cliff faces to see what wildlife we could spot. We saw a Kestrel a number of times and a few Rock Pipits. We also saw a number of butterflies, especially Red Admirals and Peacocks. 

Red Admiral

We continued exploring and I saw a large bird sitting on a nearby wall. I could see it was a Kestrel, perhaps the one we had seen earlier? But it was beautiful, I think it's a female and she sat there for quite awhile and for the first time I managed to get some good pics of the bird.

Beautiful Kestrel

Kestrel striking a pose

Another pic of the awesome Kestrel

Other bird life we spotted was Ravens, Stonechat, Dunnocks, Wheatears and lots of gulls, including Lesser and Black Backed Gulls.

Raven

Stonechat

Pied Wagtail

Apart from birds, there were quite a few fungi on the ground, here are just three photos of some of the different ones we found.

A rather large fungi

Tiny little puffballs?

A lovely looking mushroom

As we started walking back to the car we decided to pop into the sunflower field. This year the Gower National Trust planted 400,000 sunflowers. This is amazing for bees and birds will absolutely love the seeds when they are finished flowering. Next year they plan to plant lavender fields too...this will be awesome! Unfortunately, we left it too late to fully appreciate the sunflowers in all their glory, but we did find a few that were still flowering. Next year I will have to come and see them earlier :) - If you want to see what they looked like just type 'sunflowers Rhossili' into Google to see all the amazing pics.

Most of the sunflowers were dead (but with lots and lots of sunflower seeds for birds)

I found one sunflower though that was still shining bright :)

We had a fantastic time with our spare few hours and we don't understand why we don't explore the Gower more often (its literally on our doorstep!) - The sun was setting and created that lovely warm Autumn glow over the bay. I took one last pic as I looked back on the bay and it's no surprise that this is an Area of Outstanding Beauty.

Beautiful warm glow from the setting sun over the coast

The sun sets behind the worm and we say goodbye to Rhossili 

Fabulous fungi at Lliw Reservoirs, Swansea

On 26th November we ventured to Felindre, Swansea for a walk around the Lliw Reservoirs. It was pretty frosty but we still managed to find quite a few fabulous fungi!

Below are some of the more interesting ones we found, if I have identified them wrong or you know some of the ones I haven't please comment below ;)

Candlesnuff

Bloodred Webcap (Thanks Emma Williams, Glamorgan Fungi Group)

Tremellla (Thanks Ella Brey, Glamorgan Fungi Group)

First frost we have seen this Autumn/Winter

Need Identifying

Need Identifying

Cordycep militaris (Thanks Emma Williams, Glamorgan Fungi Group)

Fungi spotting in Penllergaer Forest, Swansea

Date: 5 November 2016
Location: Penllergaer Forest, Junction 47 M4, Swansea

On the day Bonfire night we decided to go looking for fungi in the local forest at Penllergaer. We had been dog sitting for a few weeks so we wanted to go somewhere where we could all have a good walk and explore nature.

Penllergaer Forest is predominantly made up of coniferous woodland and we were hoping to see lots of fungi. Thankfully we wasn't disappointed - check out our finds...

This time of year the colours are wonderful, Autumn is truly a magical time here.

Singleton Park in Autumn - 22 October 2016

I woke up to a wonderful sunny autumn morning, I didn't feel like travelling far so Dan and I decided to go fungi hunting in Singleton Park, Swansea which is only a few miles away.

Singleton Park is the largest urban park in the city of Swansea and comprises of 250 acres of land. It has an array of different habitats and some of the park is left wild for native wildlife to thrive. Our main intention was seeking out different fungi and this is what we found...

Fungi 1 - needs IDing

Fungi 2 - needs IDing

Fungi 3 - needs IDing

Closeup of Fungi 3 - needs IDing

One of the beautiful autumnal coloured trees in the park

We were quite happy with our finds, but sad we still hadn't spotted any Fly Algaric this year. We made our way to a part of the park where there are always birds. A number of people go there and feed them, so they are fairly used to humans and sometimes eat out of your hand. Armed with a bag of peanuts and meal worm we went there to see who would visit us.

A very friendly robin on the bin where we put the food.

A blue tit grabs a peanut

A coal tit 

We were so happy when all the birds started appearing, but then the big boys came. We must have been surrounded by at least 5 grey squirrel and 2 cheeky magpies came down to enjoy the feast too.

A magpie and grey squirrel

The other magpie up the tree

A very tame grey squirrel enjoying it's nut

The squirrels come really close and practically take the nuts from your hand

Wood Pigeon in tree

Something I don't see very often is 2 robins together who aren't fighting...perhaps they were a breeding pair? I noticed that someone had positioned a piece of wood on a tree, no doubt to get some good pics, I put down some meal worm and it wasn't long before one of my favourite birds, a nuthatch, appeared (amongst other visitors).

A pair of robins

Nuthatch

Coal Tit

A cheeky squirrel

We must have been in the park for over 3 hours and decided it was time to go. On the way out of the park we saw a lovely tree creeper and a few more robins. It truly is autumn, with the floor covered in reds and oranges, it is so beautiful this time of year.

Treecreeper

Robin

Autumn is here!

Below is a clip of Iolo Williams, who presented a programme on the BBC called 'Iolo's Great Welsh Parks'. This particular;ar episode took place in Singleton Park.