Red Sky in the Morning
After a glorious night of star-gazing last night we were treated to an amazing sunrise too. You can’t beat the natural world for a light display.
Category: Nature
Ribbit in Peace
Shem posted on Facebook yesterday about the Ying and Yang of his day. Sitting in a hot tub under the stars with owls and bats flying over head was the plus side, clearing up a mess made by his dog wasn’t so pleasant. The unseasonably hot weather that we’ve been having seems to have put a smile...
Today’s Moths
Yes, at long last I put the moth trap out last night. It was a gorgeous night with light winds, clear skies and temperatures only dropping to 15ºC – are you sure this is Wales at the end of September. There weren’t loads of moths in the trap but there were enough. 66 in total from...
Purple Fingers and Muffins
Call them what you will, blueberries, bilberries, blaeberries, whortleberries, whinberries, winberries, windberries, wimberries, myrtle blueberries and lots of other things too such as ground hurts or fraughan depending on where you are. They are either all the same or all very closely related species of the Vaccinium genus and we picked a whole load of...
A Whole Load of Moths
It was a busy night in the moth trap last night. Despite not putting out a sheet, just the trap itself and not investigating it early in the morning there was still 185 moths in the trap, from 36 different species. Seven of which were new garden records as well. 1 x Oligia sp. 1...
Big Butterfly Count
Don’t forget to spend 15 minutes sitting in the sunshine counting butterflies for the Big Butterfly Count. Morgan and I have done it today, but as per usual despite seeing loads before and after, during the 15 minutes we allocated we only saw a few. 1x Large White 2x Green Veined White 2x Small Tortoiseshell...
Forage in the Dunes
Morgan and I had a nice little walk through the dunes earlier. We were actually wandering across to the beach to check out what was happening with the RSPB Shear Madness. Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone there so we couldn’t find out more about the Manx Shearwaters or let them know that I often see them when...
Strawberries from the garden
We’ve managed to beat the birds to some of the soft fruit from the garden at last! Anna bought a single strawberry plant a couple of years ago and it has gradually been spreading around a small area of the garden. We have had strawberries on them before but had only managed to eat one...
A Trip to Slimbridge
We had a nice little trip to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve on Saturday. It was more of a family stroll and a play in the park for the children rather than a naturalists day out, but the sun was shining (most of the time) and we all had fun. It did start pouring...
Springwatch Webcams at Ynyshir
Springwatch starts tonight on the BBC. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, this year (and for the next couple of years at least) they are coming live from Ynyshir RSPB Nature reserve in the Dyfi Valley, just up the road from us here in West Wales. It’s the perfect place for them with stunning scenery,...
