{"id":1679,"date":"2009-06-02T08:34:02","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T08:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1679"},"modified":"2009-06-02T08:36:45","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T08:36:45","slug":"early-morning-wildlife-drive-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/06\/early-morning-wildlife-drive-in-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Morning Wildlife Drive in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a lovely drive through parts of mid Wales this morning.<\/p>\n

I’d got up early to go for a record attempt on a local Mountain Bike route<\/a>. As I left the house at 5am I was greeted by a flock of geese<\/strong> flying low over the coastal raised bog as the sun rose with gorgeous pinks and blues in the sky. The drive up from Penrhyncoch to Pendam was as lovely as ever with the usual sightings of Red Kites<\/strong> and Buzzards<\/strong>, along with hundreds of rabbits<\/strong> in the road.<\/p>\n

I got changed by the car to the sound of wood pigeons<\/strong> and cuckoos<\/strong> in the trees around me, and then the (not so pleasant) midges<\/strong> started to feast on me. During my bike ride I was concentrating on my time rather than my surroundings, but I could see loads of fish<\/strong> rising in the lakes.<\/p>\n

I had a great ride in perfect conditions and then saw about 6 Jays<\/strong> on the drive back down and best of all a huge swarm of butterflies<\/strong>. I’m not sure what sort they were as I didn’t stop to get a closer look but there were literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of them, an amazing sight.<\/p>\n

Oh, and ‘swarm’ is just one of the collective nouns for butterflies, I could have used ‘rabble’, but they were far too serene for that or maybe even a ‘kaleidoscope of butterflies’ which I think is great but not an official term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a lovely drive through parts of mid Wales this morning. I’d got up early to go for a record attempt on a local Mountain Bike route. 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