One Swallow...Saturday 4th April 2020

Living so close to Sandy Water Park makes for an easy "permitted exercise" walk.
This morning in cool overcast conditions I walked the mile or so around the lake with less than a dozen people seen let alone passed.

Waterfowl are making their way back north to breed so it is this that may have increased the count of Tufted Duck up to 13 from 8 yesterday and Pochard, a duck in decline, up from one to two this morning. 

Small numbers but when logic is applied to what is going on in the natural world it makes sense to notice the small things.

Just as I approached the end of the walk a small flock of Sand Martins arrived, careful viewing located a lone Swallow always a pleasure to see the first one, I expect that with the wind turning more southerly this will provide a boost to arriving migrants.

Swallows have been the source of some odd myths one from the 16th century tries to explain where they disappear too each autumn. Archbishop Olaus Magnus of Uppsala theorised that they spent the winter at the bottom of lakes and ponds as depicted in this wood block carving.

Fortunately we now know so much more about these trans-Saharan migrants

Going Cuckoo Tuesday 2nd April 2020

Well some of you probably think I'm "cuckoo" anyway, but here I'm looking at another cuckoo, in fact a wonderful spring flower which goes by several names. It's common names  Cuckooflower, Lady's Smock, Milkmaids, and Fairy flower with it's scientific name Cardamine pratensis

A plant of early spring in damp grassland, damp meadows, the banks of streams and also on road verges as a result of compaction of the soil making a more moisture retentive medium.

The young leaves can be eaten instead of say, Cress as they have a peppery taste, it is the county flower of Breckonshire and Cheshire where it is known as Milkmaids



Lady's Smock grows reasonable commonly in the county.

There is a particular butterfly associated with the plant that is the Orange Tip, with freshly emerged adults on the wing from April through to mid June, after spending the winter as pupae. Only the male has "orange tips" to its wings but the underside pattern is distinctive in bothe sexes

Orange Tip on Lady's Smock

Opportunities, Sunday 29th March 2020

So the clocks have gone forward, and the weather is more like a winters day, cold dry and clear with a biting wind. Nonetheless if you are able to take some exercise, in line with the guidance and instructions we are living to, even just in the garden,then the chances are you will bump into nature.

I appreciate many of you are unable to get out and take some exercise, but living about 300m from Sandy Water Park gives me an opportunity to walk around the lake, on alternate days, which is about 1 mile, a slight detour gives me views out over the Burry inlet and Carmarthen Bay.

Yesterday it was on my walk, with only a handful of others around, I stopped to check the sea for anything of interest, a dark blob just offshore turned into a dark coloured duck, looking a little chunky then it dived, when it surfaced it took flight and the dark blob showed a lot of white in the "secondaries" of its wing feathers, it took a few seconds to eliminate what it wasn't, and come to the conclusion it was a Velvet Scoter, "a scarce but regular winter visitor amongst the Common Scoters in Carmarthen Bay" (Carmarthenshire Bird Report 2018)

The Velvet Scoter breeds in Scandinavia on remote tundra, wintering as far south as the Mediterranean. Whilst the numbers of wintering Common Scoter in Carmarthen Bay are well documented the scarcity of the Velvet Scoter results in less records.

As an example,see the very obvious white secondaries in the lead bird

(photo from google)

There were clearly lots more Chiffchaffs singing in the woodland than a week ago showing that whilst humans are in "lockdown" nature is carrying on.

As if to reinforce that message, I was sat in the garden a little while after returning from my walk to receive a call from Bernie a local birder who had just seen an Osprey fly in from the South and was heading my way, looking up all I could see was a circling Buzzard but then the local gulls got very noisy and were not happy that an Osprey was heading through their territory. (The Buzzard wasn't too pleased either)

Osprey

(Wikimedia free to use and share)

So it proves just go out into your garden and look up, as I also had a Red Kite fly over.

Lots of Hoverflies on the wing at the moment and a few butterflies keep a look out especially if the weather gets warmer.

In the meantime stay safe.