Butterfly Count at Crymlyn Bog

Date:  22 July 2020

Location:  Crymlyn Bog
Weather:  Sunny and warm :)

Today we decided to do a butterfly count as from 17th July - 9th August it's the Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count

We decided to go to one of our favourite nature reserves Crymlyn Bog as we know it is always quiet and great to get away from people. This is what we saw...

Butterflies

Brimstone Butterfly

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Large Blue Butterfly

Speckled Wood

The butterfly count sheet

The results for our butterfly count was:

5 Speckled Wood

1 Brimstone

4 Common Blue

2 Meadow Brown

4 Gatekeeper

2 Large White

2 Ringlet

Damselflies & Dragonflies

Azure Damselflies

Common Darter Dragonfly

Lizards

Juvenile common lizards

Juvenile Common Lizard

Adult Common Lizard

Adult Common Lizard basking in the sun

This Adult Lizard as lost it's tail :(

Birds

Robin

Chiffchaff (Pic by Dan Turner)

Buzzard (Pic by Dan Turner)

Other critters spotted...

7 spotted ladybird

Common White Wave (Pic by Dan Turner)

We were very happy with our finds today, we have never seen so many lizards (I think we counted well over 30) and we noticed that signs were up to with guidance of social distancing and one way system around the boardwalk. 

My Garden

The butterfly magic didn't stop when we arrived home - in the garden was a Holly Blue, Large White and a red admiral (which I couldn't get a pic).

Holly Blue butterfly in the garden

Large White butterfly in the garden

There is still time to do the Big Butterfly Count, all you need to do is download the butterfly ID chart from the following address, sit in a sunny spot for 15 minutes  then record which species you see. Next add your counts on the website or you can download an app. It's important to give them this info as they can access the health of the environment by counting the amount of butterflies and moths we see. 

https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/ 

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 

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

A river walk along Cwm Du Glen, Pontardawe

Date:  8 April 2017

Location:  Cwm Du Glen, Pontardawe

It's been so beautiful in South Wales the last few day and today was not an exception. Blue, cloudless skies and finally a temperature that brought out a bit of colour in my cheeks. We didn't really know where to go, being a Saturday we knew most places would be busy.

We decided on a place I had only recently discovered through volunteering called Cwm Du Glen, in Pondardawe. An easily accessible walk from the heart of Pontardawe. Unfortunately, we learnt through a sign on the noticeboard that part of the walk was closed, we decided to go anyway to see what wildlife we could see. 

We were instantly greeting with the song of this pretty Wren before we even started walking.

The start of the walk, with plenty of information on the notice board (including a pic of me with other volunteers)

There were quite a few butterflies out including this Speckled Brown. I also spotted an Orange-tip and Brimstone too,

Lots of nice fungi around like this turkey tail.

The gorge is very beautiful and we spotted something landing in a tree...

...first time I have managed to get a Grey Wagtail still in a tree :) - A new one to add to the bird count

In the same tree a rather large Wood Pigeon

The path up to Glanrhyd Plantation

Unfortunately, this is where our walk had to end. so we sat here for awhile and was once again was treated to...

...another lovely Grey Wagtail

It wasn't long before he was joined by an other familiar bird we see on local rivers - a Dipper

The Dipper collecting nesting materials

The beautiful gorge