Return to blogging

It's been a long time since any post on the blog - the last from Mike a worthy call to arms. This will be a short post to highlight a recent find with very few records in the UK.

Last weekend I was down Pembrokeshire. First stop was Barafundle Bay. Walking down the steps to the bay I noticed several galls on the leaves of Greater Knapweed, Centaurea scabiosa. On opening one, a small orange grub was in residence, looking very much like a fly larva. 

On getting home I checked with the excellent Bladmineerders website (https://bladmineerders.nl/) and this led me to Loewiola centaureae, a species of Cecidomyiidae fly with only 4 records listed against it on the Aderyn website and only 8 in the UK.

Into new territory

After doing bits and pieces around the house on Saturday morning, I headed out looking to add to my PSL challenge, this time tackling the monad immediately east of my home monad, looking to add mainly fungi, bryophytes and lichens to the squares list, keeping an eye out for any avian year ticks - in particular the very invisible Fieldfares.

I was quite successful in adding over 50 species to the monad's list. Amongst these were a couple of lifers.

First lifer was the micro fungi, Phragmocephala atra. This is a micro fungi of dead Nettle stems, found when checking the Nettels for the much commoner Leptosphaeria acuta. Mark had posted about P. atra on Facebook a couple of years ago, but I couldn't find any at that time. They look like short, dark, stiff hairs erupting from the stem, but when they are fresh they have a "pompom" head, which makes them quite distinctive.

The larger, mammary shaped fungi are L. acuta, with the fine "hairs" P. atra. A couple with "pompom" heads can just be seen. one is to the right of the top most L.acuta.

The second lifer was also a new family for me. Bristletails, Machilidae. Thanks to a recent post on Facebook by Christian Sparrow Owens, providing a photo reference for bristletails, when I spotted one, I felt that I might be able to identify to species level, so grabbed a few pics. A quick perusal of the reference photo's were enough to convince me that I had Dilta chateri. I did, however, post it up on Facebook and Christian agreed the id.

 The key features to look for are the relatively short antennae and the solid dark band across the rear of the "hump". At this time of year this band is paler than during summer months.

This species appears to be restricted to Wales. In fact the NBN atlas has only 14 records for this species and all within south Wales.
 

Who's eating who?

Yesterday was a day focusing mainly on PSLing, looking to get the species lists up in a couple of 1km squares centred on Mynydd Goetre-Coed. I wasn't able t add any birds to the frankly pathetic year total of 51, but did find myself some new bryophites - the moss, Bicolored Bryum, Bryum dicotomun and the Liverwort, Thick-set Earwort, Scapania compacta. 

I also managed to find my first spider for the year whilst looking under stones, as well as Yellow Meadow Ants. I also found my first caterpillar for the year - looks to be the caterpillar of Dingy Footman.

Whilst wandering over the top of the ridge, I noticed a couple of pellets, about 40mm long, mainly,with largish bones protruding. In one of the pellets, very near the surface was a claw. Quite large at over 10mm long. Any suggestions as to prey, or preditor?

Today is back to birding, with a visit to Nelson Bog and Parc Penallta - both an easy walk from the house, so complying with the current Covid restrictions. 

The first year tick came within minutes of arrival at Nelson Bog as a Green Woodpecker flew over. Making my way to view over the back bog I flushed a Snipe, the second year tick of the day, from a ditch. As expected the back bog held a few Teal and, eventually, a Reed Bunting. At this point I thought I heard Willow Tit, but could only find a couple of Blue Tits. Given both Blue and Great Tits can make calls similar to Willow, I assumed it was the Blue Tits as that was all I could locate. Moving on I passed the main feeding point, lots of Coal, Blue and Great Tits, but no Willow coming for seed. It's been almost 2 years since I recorded a Willow Tit at this site, and the more visits without a sighting the more likely this species has vanished from what was one of it's local strongholds. Further on, however, another Willow Tit call - this time I was certain it was and I quickly located the bird. It showed well for a couple of minutes before flying off. Great to see that at least one is still around, but worrying that it was only one bird.

On to Parc Penallta, where a second Snipe was flushed, before two Water Rail were seen dashing for cover and later a Woodcock was flushed. Making my way up to the pagoda I could hear a flock of finches feeding. Next thing, a flock of around 40 Lesser Redpoll flew past. Further on a second flock of over 60 birds, this time mainly Siskin was found, though there were a couple of Redpoll in the flock. The Lesser Redpoll taking the year list up to 59.

A slow start

Well as expected the birding has gotten off to a slow start. Rather than the 1st January out with the boys picking up75+ species, it was a wander around the local area, with just 30 species logged. Highlights(?) were a couple of fly-by Stock Doves, a fly-over Goosander and a small flock of Siskin. 

Today's shorter wander was up round Parc Taf Bargoed and the settling beds. This added a further 15 species to the year list. 6 Red Kites was a record site count for me, but these were outshone by a Sibe Chiffy feeding at the lake side. Although it never called during the 20 mins or so I followed it, it was generally browner than a normal chiffy, lacking any green tones to the upperparts plumage. The cold pale grey underparts lacked any yellowish hues. The Super' was quite lengthy. The best of my photo attemps is below.

Whilst the birding might have been slow, I've managed 4 lifers across other taxa. Yesterday was 2 fungi - a single largish mushroom proved to be the Goblet, Pseudoclitocybe cyathiformes. This was follow by a tiny mushroom, Cinnamon Navel, Omphalina pyxidata.

                                              Goblet

                                               Cinnamon Navel

 Todays wander round Parc Taf Bagoed produced a further two lifers and just go to show that no matter how many times you visit a site, there is always something new to uncover. First up was the fern, Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum capillus-veneris. Whilst photographing this I noted a slug not far away. This turns out to be (tentively) a Rusty False-keeled Slug, Arion fasciatus.