Pretty in Pink

An unexpected free day yesterday saw me wander round Parc Penallta and Nelson Bog. Bird life was rather quiet, though a Greylag on the fishing ponds was a surprise. No sign of any Willow Tits at Nelson, to be honest, wasn't a surprise. I hope they are still hanging in there.

Last year I found a couple of spikes of Broad-leaved Helleborine near the fishing lakes. This year I counted 19 spikes, unfortuatelly all now in seed.

There were plenty of Painted Ladies on the wing, with quite a few Peacocks. A female Brimstone showed their second generation was on the wing. I picked up what I think is only my second or third Silver Y of the year - is anyone else seeing these in number or are they scarce this year?

A second moth, flying close the ground over an open area of spoil, I initially expected to be another Silver Y, until I noted the red/orange sides to the body. A Hummingbird Hawkmoth, my first of the year. Unfortunately couldn't get a photo.

Walking round another area of sparsely vegetated spoil and a noticed a small bright pink flower, clearly not Common Centaury. A couple of photo's and I'm thinking a Pink, Dianthus. The flowers showed a variable amount of small white spots on the deep pink petals. A check of the guide, brought me to Deptford Pink, D. armeria, a nationally rare species.

A check on Aderyn when I got home showed over a 100 Welsh records, including a record from 2016 from the same area. In a small area I counted 18 plants, but the total number could be much greater as I only worked a small part of the total area.

When I went to count the number of plants, a flash of gold brought a Clouded Yellow to my attention. As with most insects, the wind made photography almost impossible, so again no photograph.

WeBS (a bit late)

I only realised on Tuesday that the WeBS weekend was the weekend just past, as it was very early this month. So I undertook the count round Parc Taf Bargoed on Wednesday evening, the first chance I had. Unfortunately when I arrived at the lakes, it didn't look promising as the local canoe club were just finishing packing up, having spent much of the day out on the water.

Nothing unusual on the count, though it did return good numbers of some species. The 124 Mallard (plus the 4 domestics) is my highest ever August count. Given the poor breeding season this year - I can't think of more than 6 broods of ducklings this year compared to the 10+ of previous years - I wasn't expecting  that sort of number. The new BTO website shows this is 10% of all Mallards recorded [so far] on WeBS surveys in East Glamorgan.

Coots produced an all time high of 8. 2 pairs bred, but never got beyond the chicks first couple of days after hatching, the resident Lesser Black-back looking like the most likely cause of the mortality. One pair hatched at least 3 clutches, whilst the second probably matched that number.

Little Grebes returned an August record count of 8. There is, however, no sign of breeding this year. Most years the grebes vacate the lakes in April with a pair returning in June. The growing iris and bulrush clumps usually provide a site for them to build their nest and at least one brood is raised. This year, at least 4 birds were back on the lake by late June, and whilst there was a lot of display and territorial disputes, there was no indication of nest building. The 8 that were present yesterday were all adult birds suggesting that they were all failed breeders this year. Surprisingly, the 8 birds represent over 40% of Little Grebes recorded in this months WeBS in East Glam.

August Raven Count

The first weekend of the month, so time for the Raven count.
Up at 02:45 and the first thing I heard, on entering the bathroom was a Barn Owl, flight call from the field behind us. This was the first I've heard here for over a year, so nice to know we still have at least one in the locality.
Driving through the dark past Llwydcoed, I saw a large bird about four metres above the lane and around ten metres in front. I quickly stopped and in the light of the headlights, watched it fly away from me for a few seconds and then turn to the right, giving me a nice side view, as it headed off into the field alongside the lane and confirming what I already knew: that it was a Barn Owl and my first view of one, this year.
After that I was on a high, as I travelled to the Raven roost; a high slightly dampened by the sight of all the fresh fly tipping where I park the car.
As I walked to the place I count them from, I heard a Tawny Owl calling from further down the slope and from some disused pit feeder ponds, the unmistakable trilling call of a Little Grebe. This was the first time I had ever heard LG up there, so quite pleased with that.
Once I had set up and sat down, I immediately heard the flight calls of a hunting Nightjar, these being then heard several times over the next half hour.
As usual, I spend the time, waiting in the fading darkness before dawn, listening for and noting any early bird song and calls. This time, the Tawny Owl, Little Grebe and Nightjar were joined by Blackbird (call) Robin (song) and Wren (call).
Later, they were joined by, in no particular order, Dunnock, Lesser Redpoll, Reed Bunting, Herring Gull, Whitethroat, Chiff Chaff, Willow Warbler, Meadow Pipit and Linnet, which to my relief, are still there in good numbers.
In the week after the July Raven count, the part of the hillside adjacent to my counting spot, was burnt. Unfortunately, this was mainly an area of gorse and heather and it was in the gorse that the Linnets nest. As they don't tend to arrive back at the breeding site until quite late on in the spring and nesting still seemed to be underway, when the fire occurred, I feared the worst, but the presence of a flock of 50+ flying about, suggests that at least a proportion of the nests had fledged before the fire.
As for the Ravens: well it has been a funny old summer for them, with low counts in June and July, but at least this month, they were back to something like their usual numbers, with the total of 295 being slightly above the monthly average. It was a treat to see them leave in large groups, rather than in the trickle of pairs and threes that marked the May, June and July counts.

Sandrunner - First for Wales!

A bit quiet on the birding front over the past few weeks, apart from two major dips - the Slimbridge Little Bustard and Llanelli's Collared Pratincole.

I did have a bit more excitement with other taxa, however. On 7 July, I toursed round a number of sites in Gwent. One of those was Slade Wood, looking for White Admiral and Sliver-washed Fritillary. A single, fly over, White Ad was the best I managed for those species, but in a cleared area I stopped to photograph some plants, including Lesser Centaury, when I noticed a couple of small bugs running around. They looked like Tortoise Shieldbugs, Eurygaster testudinaria, a species I had seen previously at Crymlyn Burrows. I took a couple of photo's, and looking at these I wasn't sure that they were Tortoise S'bugs.

On getting home, and downloading the Photo's, I went onto the excellent British Bugs website to try to confirm the id. A quick check, confirmed they were not Tortoise or even the rarer Scarce Tortoise (E. maura) Shieldbugs, as the head and pronotum shapes were all wrong. A bit more searching and I came to the Sandrunner Shieldbug, Sciocoris cursitans, which looked a perfect match. The only problem, the distribution was given as south-east England. A check on the NBN and Aderyn showed no Welsh records for this species, but NBN did show a cluster of records from the Bristol area.

I posted the photo's onto Facebook, various sites, and all were supportive of the identity. The record was submitted via iRecord and has just been accepted as the first for Wales.

Collared Pratincole.

There is a bird in there and a UK tick for me. Honest.

Coleophora mayrella for Mike Hogan

Out east

A long weekend away, visiting a number of new sites around the Bedford area. I had been tempted to take a detour, on Saturdsy morning, going up to Frampton Marsh for the Black-winged Pratincole that had been hanging around for a couple of days. Fortunately, I resisted the temptation as it was not seen. 

I've been to Bedford numerous times but had never made it to the RSPB's The Lodge reserve, so I decided to give it a visit on the Saturday before coaching duties on the Sunday. Arriving bright and early, 7am, i had to wait until 7:30 for someone to open the gates to the car park. That gave me time for a coffee and something to eat before starting. The reserve is a remnant of low level heath, and whilst it lacks any star avian species, it is a habitat I've not spent much time in, so a number of new species from other taxon was expected.

With the sun shining from an almost cloudless sky, it soon warmed up enough for butterflies to take to the wing. Meadow Bown, Marbled White, Purple Hairsteak, Large Skipper and Red Admiral made it onto my year list as I spent the next 6 hrs wandering the reserve.  There were lots of Malachite, Swollen-thighed and Black-striped Longhorn Beetles sharing the Bramble patches with 100's of Bees. 

                                           Malachite Beetle Malachius bipustulatus

Ticks were mainly plants, such as Springbeauty, Common and Narrow-leaved Cudweed, and spiders, but also included a single Bishop's Mitre Shieldbug, that managed to evade the camera.

                                            Springbeauty Claytonia perfoliata

From Sandy, it was up the road to St Neot's to find my accom for the night before heading onwards to Paxton Pits. 

As luck would have it, the most recent edition of British Wildlife arrived on Friday and there was an article about Norfolk Hawker and how its range had expanded and the species was now quite common on one of the pools at Paxton Pits. Arriving at the pits, I quickly made my way to the appropriate pond and Norfolk Hawker was quickly added to the life list along with the aquatic plant Water-soldier. The edge of the pit was home to 3 species of hymenoptera, with a species of potter wasp having made some wonderful tubed entrances to their burrows.

Walking around the pits produced my first Common Terns of the year but I couldn't find any of the reported Red-crested Pochards or Egyptian Geese. At one point I found myself at the side of one of the main lakes. There was little life around, on or over the lake, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed a couple of medium sized birds flying over. Getting onto them quickly, it was two Turtle Doves. Nice. 

I took a very early morning walk around Wyboston Lakes, where apart from year ticking Egyptian Goose and had good views of a singing Leser Whitethroat, there was little of note. I then set of to Bedford, but detouring to the smallest nature reserve I've ever visited, Honeydon RNR. 

This reserve is about 100m of the verge of a country lane, about 2m wide at the widest. Not surprisingly, there is limited parking but I did find a small pullover (my dinky toy of a car filled the space). Walking the lane, the wildflowers were outstanding. Tall spikes of Spiked Star of Bethlehem, standing tall amid the grasses and Hogweed. Crested Cow-wheat, Sulphur Clover and Wild Onion, mixed in. Add the backdrop of singing Skylark, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting, and it was a very pleasant 40 minute sourjon.

                                           Spiked Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum pyrenaicum

                                           Wild Onion Allium vineale

                                           Crested Cow-wheat Melampyrum cristatum

                                           Sulphur Clover Trifolium ochroleucon