Conservation Corner (6): Biodiversity Week, Wales

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come."

Chinese saying

Better late than never: I have just stumbled across the fact that this is Biodiversity Week in Wales. If you live in Wales, you can find out about your local Biodiversity Record Centre here. You may have heard about the iSpot website on BBC Springwatch, where you can share information (and images) about nature. You may care to look at the Springwatch Wild Day Out page.

I noticed that Kenfig Nature Reserve celebrates the week with its first sighting of a Cypress Carpet moth, Thera cupressata: what a great name!

There are other initiatives and websites, too:

• Coed Cadw | the Woodland Trust has an ancient tree trail through Bute Park, with packs and sticker books.
• Activities in the Trefechan and Merthyr area, including bat detecting, poetry and bushcraft skills
• Swansea and Gower events include a number of Seashore Safaris.
• What biodiversity means in Swansea

N.B. Please don't forget the RSPB Make Nature Count survey of garden birds and mammals ... the details are here.

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
  

Window on Wildlife (10): Here, there and everywhere

At WWT Llanelli last weekend

Do take a look at the post about a Willow Warbler
on the Gower Wildlife blog here.

***

We took a few days to see some sights in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall last week.
The following pictures are mainly from this trip, but there are a few taken at WWT Llanelli on our return.
Spring has arrived, and there is a huge variety of birds and butterflies to be seen.

***

I would be delighted if anyone could give us an ID
for the bird below, seen off Hartland Point in Devon.

A Green Finch in Sidmouth...
(below)

... and a Goldfinch

We watched these Shelducks
from Blue Anchor, near Dunster...

A Pochard at WWT Llanelli...

... and a Tufted Duck

Prospecting: the islands at WWT Llanelli
make a good breeding ground

Is this a Rook?
(I took the shot from a long way away:
we weren't even sure if there was a bird in residence)

I think this may be a Fox Moth caterpillar.
I noticed it on the cliff path at Hartland Point.
Do take a look at the Marsland Moth pages here.

A Speckled Wood butterfly at Hartland Abbey...

... and a Peacock Butterfly

This Red Admiral (below)
was enjoying the sunshine at Blackbury Camp.
It was the first butterfly of 2010 for me!

I wonder what Spring wildlife
you have been enjoying...

Carnival Time (5): Simple Pleasures of Life - for Haiti

I am very grateful to Crafty Green Poet for informing us that Chris at Enchanted Oak has been holding a kind of blog carnival in praise of the simple pleasures of life. Update: this event has now come to an end, but Chris and her family have vouched to donate $2.00 to Heartline Ministries, a charity dedicated to assisting with medical and other needs in Haiti, for every blogger who posted a list, a poem, or a prose piece about the joy of simple things during the course of the 'carnival'. Do read the comment left by Chris below.

I tried to limit my choice to 5 items (as the poet in me says 'less' can sometimes mean 'more' - as in Haiku (俳句,). It was very difficult to limit the list to five items: on another day, I might have posted a completely different selection of these simple pleasures! I hope you enjoy my choices...

A Butterfly on a Bush
(in this case a Comma)

A Church by the Sea
(this one is at Mwnt, Cardiganshire, Wales, UK)

Reflections
(reminding me in this instance of Monet's Waterlily Paintings)

A Sunset
(this one is in Cornwall)

Vibrant Colour
(a Tulip)


Enjoy!

Creature Feature (8): Mwnt, Cardigan Bay

Burnet Moth Caterpillar on the cliff at Mwnt

Holy Cross Church, Mwnt

Our first view of the Bottlenose Dolphins from the headland
(while we ate our picnic)

Dolphins again in Cardgian Bay

Painted Lady butterfly, who had flown in from Morocco!

Nature Notes (1): Painted Ladies in Profusion

The first thing we buy on arrival at the Guardian Hay Festival site is a copy of The Guardian, complete with cotton shoulder bag for any book purchases we may make later in the day. I was delighted to open the g2 supplement of the paper for 25th May and find a feature by Patrick Barkham on the (welcome) invasion of the Painted Lady. 18000 butterflies (give or take a few) were recorded in the Scolt Head region alone. These creatures had flown in from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The next generation will leave their thistles and their caterpillar bodies behind when they spread their painterly wings as adults in August.

• This Week in wildlife photos (The Guardian)
• RSPB blog
  

Window on Wildlife (3): Orange Tip Butterfly

Male Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) at WWT, Llanelli

I have seen Orange Tip butterflies before, but it was only over the weekend that I began to wonder whether the orange pigmentation only belonged to the male of the species. A look in my copy of 'The Butterflies of the British Isles' by Richard South confirmed this fact. The female butterflies, who have black and white wing tips, lay their eggs on the Cuckoo Flower (Cardimine pratensis, aka Lady's Smock), the pale pink plant in the photograph.