Orchids and punks

Did my WeBS this morning, which turned out to be quite quiet. Last weeks walk round Parc Taf Bargoed showed a large number of Mallard, so I was hoping to get over the 100 mark today. Unfortunately the local fishing club had decided to clear the lakes/ponds of weed during the week and the disturbance looks to have moved a lot of the Mallard on. Last month I totaled 99, this month 35! Little Grebe numbers were up to a round dozen.

Following coaching session in Swansea, I headed off to Kenfig to look for Autumn Lady's-tresses. On reaching Sker, it took me all of about 5 seconds to find my first and I counted over 100 spikes before giving up.

Whilst take the above shot, a Clouded Yellow flitted past without stopping.

Walking back to the pool through the dunes, I photographed one of the many darters as it didn't look right for either Common or Ruddy - the photo suggests it might be a Red-veined, which would be a tick for me.

The pool itself was quiet, with only Mute Swans and a single Moorhen on it, though a Kingfisher provided a splash of colour.

The walk back to the car park produced a Painted Lady and a hoverfly tick in the shape of Syritta pipens (check out those thighs).

Finally this rather colourful punk catterpillar was spotted on Bracken. It turns out in adult form it's not quite so colourful as its the caterpillar of the Vapourer moth.

Rhaslas wagtails

Here are the pic's I promised of juv/1st winter white wagtail, taken on the morning of Wednesday 09/09/15. White wagtail called by MP on the SWB site, MP had 6  alas I just had 2 juv/1st winter, oh hum, poaching on my patch.

Nice Surprise

Decided this morning to do my WEBS a day early.
Arriving at a very wet Pwll Waun Cynon just after 7 o'clock I found the lake very difficult to observe has the vegetation was so overgrown, well over head height. This amounted to only three species being observed and 6 birds in total. 4 Moorhen, 1 Mallard and a Teal, poor pickings indeed.
I decided to go into the back field and see if I could get a better view but if anything it was worse. I walked over to the river to see if I could get Kingfisher or Dipper but with the water levels so high I was not expecting much and I was right no birds seen.
However whilst standing on the bank I noticed some movement to my right. On closer inspection there was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth feeding on some plants. I watched it for a few minutes then got the camera out. You guessed it, it decided it was camera shy. No photos but I was over the moon, it's been a few years since I saw one.

Rhaslas

Mixed flock of wigeon[11] and pintail[7] flew in at c10:00 hrs this morning, other wildfowl present; tufted[14] & teal[3]. Yesterday evening c18:50 hen harrier, ringtail, through east to west, briefly visible quartering Merthyr side of Dowlais - Fochrhiw road before being lost to view.

(National) Moth Nights 2015

As some of you may be aware, this year's Moth Nights are this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Predictably, the weather for Friday and Saturday nights is looking poor, but Thursday's promises better, so despite having to work on Friday, I intend trapping at one of my old favourite sites for a few hours on Thursday night.
The place is called Ton-ty-pel, a name which isn't on any OS map, but is the area just below the TV mast, between Cefnpennar and Cwmbach. There is no vehicular access to the site any more, so I will be parking by the bus turning area at the top of the main part of Cefnpennar (SO 0360 0135) and walking in from there.
The theme of Moth Nights, this year is migrants and with the winds promising to change to a more favourable direction, the odd migrant can't be ruled out, but my personal reason for trapping this site will be Grey Chi, which I used to get there regularly, at this time of year.

Needless to say, anyone would be welcome to turn up. I'll probably aim to get there at 20:00 and will run the trap down in the old quarry.

Cwm Cadlan west

Stopped briefly at the west cattle grid this evening as there appeared to be quite a lot of small birds foraging close to the road. As well as good numbers of goldfinch, meadow pipit, linnet, chaffinch, starling and the occasional stonechat being present I was pleased to see whinchat[c8], a species I appeared to have missed in Merthyr this year.

Sunday in Robertstown

I finally got the chance to go and have a look at Martin's Collared Earth-stars and after walking past them twice, I eventually got my act together and noticed them. It was good to see them in the flesh, to see what size they were. As well as the older, mature fruiting bodies, there are still new ones emerging. I too some photos, but as Martin has already posted some excellent shots of them on here, I won't bother posting any of mine.

A little way from the Earth-stars, I found a group of what appear to be one of the Ramaria Spp. Clustered around the base of a large, mature Birch, alongside the path. The general colouration was greyish white and white, with darker, bifurcated tips, as can be seen in the photos.

My first thought, when trying to identify it from the photos, was that it was R. botrytis, but as that seems to be quite rare, and other species of Ramaria look similar, I am now not sure at all.

I had intended going from there to Bryn Du, but by this time, it was getting on a bit, so I decided to stay in the Robertstown area for the rest of my available time.
Taking a stroll around the old Pirelli  factory sports field, which is now just a large area of rank vegetation, I saw surprisingly little, apart from lots of bumble and carder bees. In one corner, I came across this tiny Leafhopper, which is one of the Eupteryx Spp. Probably Eupteryx urticae, but without being able to see if the hind legs' femora are dark, I can't be sure. Nice looking thing though.

I ended my day at the former Universal site, where I came across this Peppered Moth caterpillar on some Mugwort.

Also a regular there is Hairy Shieldbug.

Having been looking for Alder Tongue for a couple of years, without success, I have been looking again this year, but there seems to be a distinct lack of pseudocones on the local Alders this year. Presumably, the weather conditions were unsuitable at the time when the catkins were shedding their pollen. Has anyone else noticed this scarcity of Pseudocones on the Alders this year?