With great weather and the lifting of the non-essential travel restrictions, it was a chance to get out and about and visit sites slight further from home.
On Saturday, I met up with Phil and he took me to a new site, by Penderyn, to try to find the Pied Flycatcher that Martin Bevan had found earlier in the spring. No sign of the Pied Fly, but a Spotted Flik provided some compensation.
From there we went over to Cwn Cadlan LNR to look for Whinchat. A family party of Kestrel, at least 4 birds, were vocal and visable. The adult male was kept busy bring in food for his youngsters and his success rate when hunting was second to none, as he appeared to make a kill on every hunt/dive we saw.
Despite, or because of the, numerous adult and juvenile Stonechats, there was no sign of any Whinchat and we had just about given up hope when Phil called on. Unfortunately all I could see was another juv Stonechat, until t dropped of the fence and revealed the Whinchat.
The only other sighting of note was numerous Ermine moths congregating round a couple of Hazel shrubs/trees. Photo's shows these to be Bird-cherry Ermines, Yponomeuta evonymella.
Sunday was a day for twitching, with two targets, both quite local. Unfortunately, in both cases we didn't quite get the right spot first time, but we eventually got to the correct site for the Forester moth, Adscita statices, above Nantgarw. What a gorgeous little moth - much brighter than in the field guides.
At the Forester site we met Paul Denning who provided more detailed instructions for the second twitch species, and led us to the Narrow-leaved Helleborines just north of the M4. There were a number of plants in flower, alongside a number of Broad-leaved Helleborines, allowing close comparison between the two species. There was also meant to be a flowering spike of Yellow Bird's-nest, but we could not locate it. I did find one spike that had been trodden on, and three others that had gone to seed.
Then to finish the weekend off, I put the moth trap out last night and was rewarded with my best ever catch at home, some 53 moths of 37 species, including no fewer than 9 lifers, the highlight being a Leopard Moth on the back wall.
The lifers were: Clepsis consimilana (x2), Leopard Moth Zeuzera pyrina, Dioryctria abietella, Scoparia ancipitella, Eudonia delunella, Eudonia mercurella, Muslin Footman Nudaria mundana, Fan-foot Zanclognatha tarsipenalis, and Marbled Beauty Cryphia domestica.
On Saturday, I met up with Phil and he took me to a new site, by Penderyn, to try to find the Pied Flycatcher that Martin Bevan had found earlier in the spring. No sign of the Pied Fly, but a Spotted Flik provided some compensation.
From there we went over to Cwn Cadlan LNR to look for Whinchat. A family party of Kestrel, at least 4 birds, were vocal and visable. The adult male was kept busy bring in food for his youngsters and his success rate when hunting was second to none, as he appeared to make a kill on every hunt/dive we saw.
Despite, or because of the, numerous adult and juvenile Stonechats, there was no sign of any Whinchat and we had just about given up hope when Phil called on. Unfortunately all I could see was another juv Stonechat, until t dropped of the fence and revealed the Whinchat.
The only other sighting of note was numerous Ermine moths congregating round a couple of Hazel shrubs/trees. Photo's shows these to be Bird-cherry Ermines, Yponomeuta evonymella.
Sunday was a day for twitching, with two targets, both quite local. Unfortunately, in both cases we didn't quite get the right spot first time, but we eventually got to the correct site for the Forester moth, Adscita statices, above Nantgarw. What a gorgeous little moth - much brighter than in the field guides.
At the Forester site we met Paul Denning who provided more detailed instructions for the second twitch species, and led us to the Narrow-leaved Helleborines just north of the M4. There were a number of plants in flower, alongside a number of Broad-leaved Helleborines, allowing close comparison between the two species. There was also meant to be a flowering spike of Yellow Bird's-nest, but we could not locate it. I did find one spike that had been trodden on, and three others that had gone to seed.
Then to finish the weekend off, I put the moth trap out last night and was rewarded with my best ever catch at home, some 53 moths of 37 species, including no fewer than 9 lifers, the highlight being a Leopard Moth on the back wall.
The lifers were: Clepsis consimilana (x2), Leopard Moth Zeuzera pyrina, Dioryctria abietella, Scoparia ancipitella, Eudonia delunella, Eudonia mercurella, Muslin Footman Nudaria mundana, Fan-foot Zanclognatha tarsipenalis, and Marbled Beauty Cryphia domestica.
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