Putting the boot in..

At 4am this morning I decided to try for the Booted/Sykes Warb found down the Gower by Ed Hunter, before coaching in Swansea later in the morning, so set of not long after 5am. After driving through some heavy rain which had me doubt my sanity, the Gower was surprisingly dry. I was the first birder to arrive on the scene and started my search as it grew lighter. Initially it was Robins everywhere but as the number of birders grew, so did the number of birds. A fair sized mix flock passed through containing both Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warb, but I failed to get on to either of these. I did get back into the groove picking up the first of the days Pied Flick's.

Soon the flock passed through again, and this time I managed to pick up the Y-b, but there was no sign of the main quarry. As we spread out to try to find the hippo' Mark Hipkin announced he had it and most of the assembled crew were quickly onto it as it fed in a stunted Sycamore, giving great veiws. After a couple of minutes it disappeared, but the agreed concensus was that it was a Booted Warb rather than the rarer Sykes. Mark didn't take long to refind it as it worked the hedgerow. At that point I had to leave so left the guys following it down the lane.

Phil and Bev decided to take the chance later in the day. When they arrived it hadn't been seen for several hours, but they didn't take long to refind it, in the same stunted Sycamore it was in earlier in the morning.

Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

I find these are in short supply this year, this is only my second record of the year and I have been checking Willow Herb religiously. I found this one by accident today in my lane. Also on Monday I had a mole over Robertstown north and yes a live one! In Abercwmboi I had a Ruby Wasp sp and have not seen them this late before.

Little bit of Cuba

Here are couple of photos from my trip to Cuba, first up Cuban Pygmy Owl  which was only seen on mainland .

 Cuban Emarald was very common and seen daily

 I had this pale Plover and I just knew it had to be Piping Plover

 Cuban Tody and for something so colourful took a bit to see.

 Cuban Green Woodpecker.

 Turkey Vulture.

 West Indian Woodpecker.

 Lauging Gull.

 Cuban Brown Anole

 Willet.

 Juv Cuban Black Hawk

 The Scarce  Bahamas Mockingbird and only a single bird seen.

 Greater Flamingo.

Mixed flock of White Ibis and Roseate Spoonbill and a Ticoloured Heron.

weekend wanderings

After coaching on Saturday, I took myself round a patch of local woodland I've never actually visited, mainly in the hope of finding Club and Saddle fungi.

About 3 steps into the wood and there was my first, a Crested Coral Clavulina coralloides, quickly followed by a couple of Golden Spindles Clavulinopsis corniculata, a Wrinkled Club, Clavulina rugosa, and several Pointed Clubs Clavaria acuta, all in a small area. After that, zilch apart from a few small Mycea (which I didn't see). I did, however, find a small white slug. Could it be the Ghost or another Worm Slug. A check with the hand lens found no pigment in the eyes and the pneumostome was located at the very rear of the body and a short keel at the very tail. Yes, a Ghost Slug, Selenochlamys ysbryda.  - one of the very few species with a Welsh word in its official binomal.

                                              Crested Coral

                                              Ghost Slug.

After Sundays tee-hugging session (see Phil's post), it was another wander round a local wood before the rain set in. Fungi were few and far between but Twig Parachute Marasmiellus ramealis was new for me. I did pick up three fine beetles - Woodland Dor, Anoplotrupes stercorarius is a familiar species I usually fine up on the hills, but I picked up my first Common Heartshield Nebria brevicollis and a host of the False Ladybird Endomychus coccineus, another tick for me.

                                             Twig Parachute

                                               Common Heart-shield

                                                False Ladybird

Finally on Monday, I noticed an attractive moth on the pillar just outside the house on Monday evening - not quite a Death's-head Hawkmoth, but a new moff for me - Large Ranunculus Polymixis flavicincta

                                                             Large Ranunculus

One for the Bucket list

After hearing that the Dead's Head Hawkmoths were back at Kenfig Pool for release I thought I had blew my chances of seeing them after hearing too late on Sunday they were there. But there's always a silver lining and Dave Carrington the Warden from Kenfig Nature Reserve said that if I still wanted to see them I could so and Phil jumped at it. It was brilliant to have the pleasure of seeing them The first time for me to twitch a moth.

Monknash - Nash Point

Highlights.

Martin Bevan slept late for the second time in a week and Martin Bell walked into a tree.

Just a figment of our collective imagination

It's 5am on Sunday morning and I'm standing at Fiddlers Elbow in the damp mist waiting to be picked up by Phil for a day trip to Weymouth and Portland. 10 past and the phone goes off, who's slept in? No sign of Mr Bevan. Phil is trying to reach him. 20 minutes later and the phone goes again, Bevan has surfaced, Phil will pick me up and then we'll pick up sleepy head. So about an hour later than planned, we set of for the south coast.

The rest of the journey went without hitch until we reached the outskirts of Weymouth, to find that a triathlon was taking place that morning and a number of roads would be closed. We hoped access to Lodmoor would be OK. Alas not, the triathlon was based at Lodmoor. We eventually managed to park in Weymouth, about a kilometer from Lodmoor, and wandered through the crowd to the RSPB reserve, hoping that the Least Sandpiper had the decency to stay put for another day.
Fortunately it didn't take long to catch up with this micro wader - a British tick for all three of us - ably put onto the bird by Kevin Hughes, who had managed to beat us down (he didn't have to wait for anyone else to drag themselves out of their pit). Unfortunately the Stilt Sand' had decided to hop it the previous day.

                                           a poor record shot of the peep

From Lodmoor we headed over to Portland, to see what, if anything, was passing through. The short answer - nothing! so we joined Kevin waiting for the long staying Wryneck to put in an appearance in the Obs quarry. After about 20 mins I picked the bird up as it hunted through the long grass and we all enjoyed good views for some time before we decided to leave it be.

From there we walked over to Southwell to try for the Hoopoe that's been hanging around for a while. It took a while, and we just making moves to leave, when it popped up onto a bare snag, a nice year tick for myself and the second this year for both Martin and Phil.

If the start of the journey was delayed, the delays on the return trip started as we approached the bridge tolls. We did, however, find out why Bevan slept in as his alarm went off at 4pm - clearly he was still in Cuba time.

Swift

Swift hawking insects with House Martins over the River Cynon at Mountain Ash at 13.55 for 10 minutes. Unfortunately I did not have binoculars with me to get a closer look given the time of year.

Rhaslas

Wandered the pool margins today hoping for a blow-in but just the ruff of any interest, found by Ceri yesterday. Thanks to Tom for letting me know, bird flushed from southwest bank, flew to west point and disappeared into the rush. The dunlin is from the the 11th again at west point.

Starry, starry night....

A wander round the local woods this evening produced my first records of Collared Earthstar Geastrum triplex for this site, and my home 1km square. A total of 4 individuals was located.

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to join the Glamorgan Fungo Group foray to Coed Gelli Draws, just outside Pontpridd. An enjoyable morning wandering around produced some nice fungi, but possible the best find of the day was whilst waiting for everyone to assemble I noticed a gall growing on a Dogwood leaf. A couple of photo's and a bit of research suggests this is a gall caused by the larva of a fly Craneiobia corni. According to Aderyn, there is one one previous record in Wales - from Monmouthshire. The gall takes the form of a red - darkening to purple knob on the upper leaf, whilst on the underside the gall looks more like a green flask.