Day 24 - 30 Days Wild - A walk amongst the Swansea dunes

* Today's random act of wildness - exploring the dunes *

A few days ago I went looking for Bee orchids and found a lizard instead. I put this on Facebook and someone said they had seen some down in the Swansea dunes, so after work we decided to pop down and have a look...

Flowers on the dunes with Mumbles Lighthouse in the background

There are sandy pathways throw the dunes

We looked everywhere for the bee orchid, but whether they had already flowered we couldn't find any. However, there were lots of other different plants and flowers...

Evening Primrose

Pyramidal Orchid

More Pyramidal Orchid

Morning's Glory

Morning's Glory

Mushrooms in the sand

There wasn't just flowers on the dunes there were lots of insects around too including a large hawk moth (which was unfortunately dead, but still beautiful).

Strange bug

Eyed Hawk Moth

Eyed Hawk Moth

Even more flowers...

Some many flowers in bloom

Jupiter's Beard

Coastal Holly

Coastal Rose

Pyramidal Orchid

Common Marlow?

I saw these young birds too...

I think this is a juvenille Whitethroat

Juvenile meadow pipit?

Day 22 - 30 Days Wild - Attracting moths - Take 2

* Today's random act of wildness - Attracting moths *

On day 9 I tried to attract moths by making a wine and sugar syrup - unfortunately I didn't get much success. So tonight am going to try the old fashion sheet and torch experiment. I have set the sheet up and waiting until it gets a bit darker before setting a light on it.

The white sheet set up ready.

Here are some of the insects I found in the garden earlier today, including lots of tiny Cinnabar moths and a bug that his an alien face on his body!

This bug has an alien face! (need to ID)

Cinnabar caterpillars

They are very tiny at the moment

Lots of shield bugs in the garden

A slug and bug (need IDing)

A cocoon in the insect hotel

Grasshopper in the insect hotel

Stay tuned to see what I see in a few hours!!!

Day 9 - 30 Days Wild - Attracting Moths

* Today's random act of wildness - Attracting Moths *

Seeing I saw a few moths in the garden recently I decided to look on the internet for ways to attract moths in the garden. I found a great recipe for moth syrup on the Wildlife Trust's website and decided tonight I shall give it a go. Click here to see the link yourself :) 

Cinnabar moth in the garden today

Mullein Moth caterpillar - tiny compared to my thumb but will grow quite a bit.

* Here is the Moth Syrup recipe *

You will need:

• A bottle of red wine
• 1 kg Sugar
• Some cloth cut in strips
• Wooden Spoon
• Saucepan

*Note - I halved the recipe *

The ingredients

Step 1 - Pour wine into saucepan

Step 2 - Add the sugar

Step 3 - Stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat and cool.

Step 4 - Now add the cloth to the wine/sugar mix

Step 5 - Next take the cloth out of the saucepan

Step 6 - Last step hang the strips up in the garden. I have put it on the rotary line,
but you could put them on trees, fences etc...

Now all I have to do is wait until it gets dark to see what turns up...watch this space...

* 2 hour update *

After two hours and when it was dark we went to check on the strips, unfortunately we didn't get any moth's on them, but there was a few small ones flying around. After another half an hour we moved them to the fence at the bottom of the garden where there's a few trees. Again, nothing so we decided to give up on moths tonight...perhaps there was too much of a breeze in the air? Nevertheless we went exploring and came across these critters, including a rather large stone spider...

Centipede

House Spider

A lovely patterned slug

Stone spider enjoying some of the moth syrup that had run down the fence.

Day 14 - 30 Days Wild - A nature walk along Neath canal

On Sunday (Day 14) we decided to have a long walk along my local canal. Before we got to the main canal path we climbed up a nearby woodland where we saw the kestrel on day 3.

We had literally only been up there for 10 minutes when there he was, hovering overhead! We could barely believe it - unfortunately the sun was quite strong so all the pics I took of him are just silhouettes, but nevertheless there he was!

The kestrel

In the woodland there are lots of trees and flowers which were teeming with butterflies, birds and moths. Here are just a few of what I could get photos of...

Skipper moth & leaf beetle

Six spot burnet moth

Silver y moth

Coal tit

Jay

Dunnock

Eventually we made it down from the woodland to start our canal walk and were so happy with what we had already seen. The walk we were now going to do was along Neath canal and then back again. 

Once again there was an abundance of nature in the water and along the banks. The amount of insects we discovered was mind blowing!

Lilies on Neath canal

Speckled brown butterfly

Red admiral butterfly

Common blue male butterfly

Common Blue female butterfly

Common carder bee

Blue damselflies mating (look at the heart x)

A variation of the non-native harlequin ladybird

Red tailed bumblebee

There were also lots of different birds in nearby trees and bushes...

Swallows

Robin

Chiffchaff

Bulfinch

Collared dove

...and so many young birds in the water too including moorhens and their chicks!

Two moorhen chicks

A moorhen chick balancing on a lily pad.

Mum and chick and a photobomb from a damselfly on the right

One of the main reasons we visit the canal is to see the swans and the cygnets. The seven cygnets (there were nine originally) are almost five weeks old and growing at a rapid rate!

I bought them premium duck and swan food and they loved it! Dad was a bit cheeky by demanding to be fed by hand, but we made sure everyone had a fair share. 

Dan feeds the swans and here is mum catching it in her beak.

The swan family with dad leading the way.

One of the cygnets with some new head gear!

There was lots of other activity in the canal, including tadpoles that have not got both back and front legs and, unbelievably, terrapins! We had no idea they resided in these waters, but a man saw us taking pics and pointed them out to us - there were three altogether and they were all basking in the sun! 

Tadpoles are almost frogs with tails!

One of the terrapins basking in the lilies.

Apart from the terrapins on of the strangest things I witnessed on our walk was a white spider! After a bit of research I found out that it's a crab spider. What's fascinating about them is they can change their colour to match their background (this can take days to so). The crab spider sits on flowers waiting for insects to land close by, and then pounces on them - trapping them between their crab-like front legs. I have never seen one before and what a strange creature to witness.

Crab Spider

What an amazing walk for day 14 this was and altogether we had walked 0ver ten miles! It just blows me away how many different species are on our doorsteps and I still get excited when I discover something I have never seen before.