Creature Feature (16): Wildlife at Mwnt, Gwbert and Cardigan Island

Mwnt from the Cardigan Farm Park
You can just make out the white bell tower of the Church of the Holy Cross, halfway up on the right.

We enjoyed a visit to Mwnt on the Cardigan coast of Wales last weekend.
The weather was glorious and we saw some interesting wildlife.
This was the first sign (below) we saw as we left the NT car-park at Mwnt...

This is the church in its glorious setting...

We were just enjoying our cliff-top picnic when we spotted our first seal...

After lunch we drove the short distance on to Gwbert,
to do the coastal walk around the Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park.

We were thrilled to see this Common Lizard,
who had ventured indoors.
It was 'rehabilitated' seconds after this photo was taken.

Out on the cliffs we spotted a few Oystercatchers...

and this female Stonechat...



We spotted a Skylark ...

having watched Pipits earlier at Mwnt...

Suddenly we spotted this 'tortoiseshell' bird.
It was my first Turnstone:
an exciting moment!
The bird is sporting its breeding plumage.

By now, we could see Cardigan Island very clearly
from our gorse-lined cliff path...

I tried out my mini-tripod for the first time,
to see if I could get a steady shot of the bluebells on the island,
and of the nesting gulls.
I'm afraid I was only moderately successful,
but it gives an idea of the beautiful blue swathes.

We spent ages with these gulls, waiting for more seals to surface,
but the tide was high
and there were a lot of motor boats about, making quite a racket,
despite the speed limit in these conservation waters.

The Herring Gull below was nesting on the rock between the mainland and the island.

I have often seen Burnet Moths on the cliffs at Mwnt.
We were too early this time, but I did spot the caterpillar below.
It unrolled itself and trundled off into the grass.
It was pretty fat!

There were scores of small blue butterflies from the Lycaenidae family,
but they were too fast for me to catch on film
and I did not like to disturb them.

However, this beautiful creature from the same family
was quite unperturbed
as I took its photograph
on the way back to the car...

Small Copper Butterfly

Postscript...

We kept our eyes on the water as much as we could in the hope that the Porpoises or Bottlenose Dolphins would appear. We did not spot any on this occasion, but I was pleased to read on the Whales in Wales blog that they were definitely around. I hope you were able to enjoy fine weather in your neck of the woods, and that you spotted some interesting flora and fauna, too.

• BBC website: Gwbert panorama
• A Coastcard Land&Lit post on the Mwnt | Bardsey Island literary associations
  

Conservation Corner (5): Green Zoos - wild, woolly and poetic

(These flamingos are not in the zoos mentioned,
but I thought their stately poses resembled poetic installations!)

A number of wild animals are to share their USA zoo quarters with installation works of poetry to raise awareness of wildlife conservation. The project, under the auspices of the Poets' House, is called The Language of Conservation. Poets' House, the national literary centre and poetry library in New York City, has teamed up with five zoos in New Orleans, Milwaukee, Little Rock, Jacksonville, and Chicago.

A $1 million National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services has helped the project to get off the ground. You can read more about it here and here. There is a great photograph of Mark Doty sharing a poetic moment with an elephant at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. Little Rock Zoo is one of the institutions taking part.

Seasonal Spotlight on Aberglasney (1): June 2009

June at Aberglasney, the garden lost in time
and home of the poet, John Dyer,
Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK

'Hear the thrush, while all is still,
Within the groves of Grongar Hill'
John Dyer (d.1757)

I hope to post occasional seasonal photographs of these views of the garden:

• The House at Aberglasney (partly open to the public, often with exhibitions)
  
• The view from Aberglasney to Grongar Hill (the view from my favourite seat)
  
• The Upper Walled Garden (with Celtic design flowerbeds)
• The stream in Pigeon House Wood
  
• The Cloister Garden
• The stream in Bishop Rudd's Walk

Invertebrate Life

• Insect life on the edge of the pond in The Pool Garden (we have seen newts and an eel here: my photo of an eel at Aberglasney is here)
  

Bird life:

• Chaffinch
• Pied Flycatcher, I think (help appreciated here!) ... or Spotted Flycatcher?
  

Garden Plants

• Poppy
• Old fashioned rose (ah, the scent!)
• Iris

Wild flowers

• Orange Hawksbit (aka Fox and Cubs)
  
• Ox-eye Daisy
• Ragged Robin
• Buttercup

... and finally...

• Afternoon Tea on the Terrace.

And finally, for Aberglasney's literary links (Wordsworth, Gillian Clarke...), you may like to click here. I hope you have enjoyed your virtual visit to the garden.