A walk down the canal

Date:  2 June 2020 (Day 2 of #30DaysWild 2020)

Location:  Jersey Canal, Briton Ferry
Weather:  Sunny, warm...beautiful :)

Today was the first time I ventured out for a walk since lock-down. I feel ashamed as I have a beautiful canal less than 5 minutes from my home and only today I went down there.

Today was also the first time Dan could come around and sit in the garden since lock-down. It was such a great feeling being outdoors among nature. The canal as changed a lot since I was last there. The paths have been resurfaced and even the dirt path towards Neath is now paved. 

We took the path towards the old Wern works and it wasn't long before we spotted our first bird: The moorhen, she was with two chicks walking among the lily pads (that were flowering and look splendid).

Moorhen

Moorhen chick

We walked a bit further and spotted the swans with their 2 week old cygnets. they were really close to the bank and we were unable to see or get good pictures of them, so we decided to keep walking and hoped we would get better views on the way back. We did spot some domestic ducks, mallard and more juvenile moorhens. Plus some horses grooming each other!

Domestic ducks

Female Mallard with juvenile Moorhen

Horses grooming each other

After we walked past the horses I looked back and took a shot of the canal..it truly is a beautiful place. Our next stop was the big rock (nb: trying to find out some history regarding this rock, is it there for a reason? let me know), I always look in here to see if there is any fish or tadpoles.

The beautiful canal

The large rock...why is it here? Is it some sort of sundial or just decorative?

It was nice to see none of the foliage had been cut back so time to explore for bugs...I didn't see many butterflies just a Small Blue and a Meadow Brown. I did see a few dragonflies and damselflies, but couldn't get a pic of either. I also spotted a ladybird larvae on some brambles. 

Small Blue Butterfly

Meadow Brown Butterfly

Seven spotted ladybird larvae

Interesting rock face

Just before the end of the canal is the old Wern Works. There were a few deliberate entrances so I managed to get a pic of the colourful graffiti inside. In March there had been an illegal rave in there where more than 200 people joined together for an all-night rave. You can read the article here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/briton-ferry-rave-wern-works-17845656

The old Wern factory

The canal pretty much ends here so we turned around and walked back. We was so happy to see the swans were now on the bank and you could see the parents and 7 cygnets clearly. We never brought any food, but it wasn't long before someone arrived and they all made a beeline to her for their supper :)

Check out this video too: https://www.facebook.com/SandraEvansArt/videos/256752082243500/

So this was pretty much the end of our first walk in three months. It was lovely to be out, exploring and taking photos of what we find. I am hoping to pop down once a week to see how the swans are getting on :)

New Year walk at the WWT Llanelli

Date:  4 January 2020

Location:  WWT Llanelli
Weather:  Mixed bag of cloud and the odd bit of sun

Happy New Year Everyone! It's been forever since I have updated my blog, so one new year resolution is to get out there, find wonderful wildlife and blog at least once a week. 

Our first outing was to our local WWT nature reserve in Llanelli. We are members, so when we at a loose end we always venture down there to enjoy the wildlife and get some well needed fresh air.

This is what we discovered...

The Birds:

Robin

Blackbird

Chaffinch

Wood Pigeon

Little Egret

Tufted Duck (male)

Grey heron

Fungi:

Need Iding...

Jelly ear fungus

Close up of Jelly Ear Fungus

Need Iding...

Need Iding...

Turkey Tail Fungus

We were only there for a few hours, but it was lovely to be out and about again - nature is truly the best medicine and therapy anyone could want and I hope I can get outdoors as much as I can this year :)

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