Have you run out of things to do with the children during the school holidays yet? The weather might not be great, but that shouldn’t stop you getting out into the great outdoors and doing things with them.

Blueberry Picking

How about heading to the hills for some blueberry picking – You can then spend some time in the kitchen cooking blueberry muffins with them. It’s getting a little late for blueberries now, but there were plenty there last weekend.

Blackberry Picking

Blackberry season is just about upon us as well. There are pockets of ripe blackberries all over the place and there should be more on their way over the next few weeks, so whatever the weather put on some suitable clothing (long sleeves and legs to protect you from the thorns and nettles and things you don’t mind getting stained), grab some pots and get foraging.

Wildlife Exploring

Fancy something a little more organised? RSPB Ynyshir have a ‘Wildlife Explorers Go Wild‘ day next Wednesday (Aug 25th) with activities for children of all ages – pond dipping and bug hunting with the wardens to see what you can find and learn about the smaller wildlife on the reserve. We’ve been to a few such events and they are always well organised and the kids love them.

You can of course do this one your own in the garden or a nearby park.

You can even do you own big garden birdwatch or butterfly count. Just because you can’t submit the results to the RSPB or Butterfly Conservation any more doesn’t stop you downloading an identification and recording sheet and doing your own version.

Den Building

The Forestry Commission at Nant yr Arian have a Den Building course for children 5 yrs+ on Wednesday 25th. Their woodland is the perfect place to try out your den building skills. Join one of the rangers who will show you how to make one.

Photo Walks

Kids love taking photos and with modern digital cameras it is cheap and easy. Give them your compact camera set it onto auto and head off on a photo assignment. You may be surprised at the results and more often than not their perspective on the world around them will give you some photo inspiration too.

There’s no need to spend loads of money on expensive attractions, kids love the great outdoors and with a bit of imagination and a reason for being out there you can too. There’s loads to do out there and not only is it fun but it’s healthy and educational too.

Just some flowers from the garden. The Agapanthus have started flowering, and a stand of sunflowers have appeared from nowhere. We didn’t plant them so we can only assume that the seeds came either from the compost bin or the bird feeders. They seem to be doing well though and are now in flower.

Sunflower

One of the new species from last nights moth catch was an Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila elpenor). It is quite an iconic species, and rightly so with its stunning pink and tan colours. My earlier photos of it just didn’t do it justice, so here are a few more of a slightly fresher specimen now that I’ve had some time to take some shots in the sunshine.

Hope you like them.

Elephant Hawkmoth

Elephant Hawkmoth

Elephant Hawkmoth

I’ve just had a stroll around the garden. Everything is coming along nicely and there are quite a few new flowers out today as well, so I took some snaps of them with my little compact camera.

I haven’t done much photography lately, other than recording things such as moths and progress in the garden. It was therefore nice to sell one of my photos of Lake Vyrnwy as a Canvas print last week.

I hadn’t been trying to sell the photos, they had simply been posted on this weblog which then prompted an enquiry from someone asking if I was selling them as canvas prints. Luckily, I have had canvas prints made for myself before now and they do look really nice. This meant that I not only had a suitable way of producing a canvas print but knew that the quality and customer service was excellent. I wouldn’t have wanted to sell something without knowing this first.

A few phone calls later and an order had been placed, cheques sent and the canvas print of my photo was in production. The print has now been received and everyone is happy. My customer is delighted to have a lovely canvas print on her wall, the print company has made a sell and I have not only made a little bit of money from one of my photos, but better still, I can bask in the knowledge that someone somewhere is enjoying a little bit of ‘art’ that I created. It’s a really nice feeling knowing that someone has liked what you’ve created enough to hang it on their wall.

Trouble is, it has made me want another canvas print for our wall. Maybe the photo below as it will look nice with the colours in our living room and go perfectly with the other canvas print that I already have there.

Surfer Silhouette Borth

Mike, the warden of the local Nature Reserve has called around a couple of time this week with little challenges for me in the form of Micro Moths to photograph and identify. I’m only just getting to grips with the Macro Moths so the micros are pretty difficult.

The first was this which I think is Eriocrania subpurpurella.

Eriocrania subpurpurella

The second one was a little more lively and therefore difficult to photograph but I got there in the end. I think it could be Phyllonorcyter stettinensis.

Phyllonorcyter stettinensis

Of course, if anyone knows better then please let me know.

My first full year moth-trapping is going to be an exciting one. Not only does it coincide with the formation of the new Ceredigion Moth Group which should keep me busy, but there is the chance of seeing new species almost every time I put the trap out.

I starting writing this post about a week or so ago after a fairly successful nights catch but forgot to publish it. Seeing as it had a photo of a new moth for me I thought I’d add it now.

The Double-striped Pug may only be small, but looks lovely up close and was a new garden record for me.

Double-striped Pug

There were 13 moths in total that night:

• Shoulder Stripe x8
• Early Grey x1
• Mottled Grey x1
• Double-striped Pug x1
• Red Chestnut x1
• A micr0 – A yet unidentified.

It seems as though the photos of the mating pair of Dasystoma salicella moths I took at the weekend have been in demand. I posted one of them on a forum and immediately had a couple of people ask if they could use it for their own personal records. Obviously I didn’t mind and sent them copies of the photos.

Since then I’ve been in contact with Ian at UK Moths who had photos of the larval stage, but not the adults of Dasystoma salicella, so the UK Moths website is now using my photo to illustrate the species. In addition, Mike from Hants Moths was in a similar position and requested use of the photo too.

If only I had realised that it was such an un-photogenic species at the time, I may have spent a little more time and effort getting a few more shots.

Amorous Couple - Dasystoma salicella

It looked like a nice morning for a walk today, the winds were light, the sun was shining and I’d heard that there were some Orange Underwing moths (Archiearis parthenias) around at a local nature reserve. Apparently they can be seen flying around birch tress in the sunshine during March.

I had a good look, but didn’t find any. I did see a couple of lizards on my travels and another moth species. In fact I saw the male and female of this in an ‘amorous embrace’. I’ve yet to identify this species but I’m working on it.

It was a nice walk around the boardwalk though without anyone else around and a good excuse to take some photos. Click on them to enlarge them.

Morgan and I made use of our new RSPB membership and went for a cold winters walk at Ynyshir this morning.

Lots of Canada Geese about but Morgan was a little cold so we couldn’t sit and look for birds for too long. I did manage a couple of photos of a bird that I think is a juvenile Robin.

Juvenile Robin

Robin