Tuesday 25th August 2014

WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED.

Today we were "nephew sitting" and with an iffy forecast decided to visit New Quay in West Wales about an hour and a half away from home. The plan was to go on a dolphin watching boat trip of which there are many to choose from.

Arriving around 11:30am I went into the first booking office I saw, now that could have been a big mistake!, I booked with "SeaMor" for the 12:30pm trip, after booking and enjoying a "mocha" I noticed that we were booked on a "RIB" in other words an inflatable, opps keeping quiet we queued up at the harbour and it was a joy to see the faces on the other half and the nephew when they realised we were getting onto an inflatable...

cow Atlantic Grey Seal

Stupidly I didn't take a photograph of the RIB but there was no need to concern with life jackets issued and fitted we set off at a sedate pace along the coast, this area is a Special Area of Conservation with tight rules on the behaviour of the trip operators.

another cow Atlantic Grey Seal

On board as well as the "driver" there was a marine biologist, a young Spanish lady who REALLY KNEW HER STUFF,

We were very fortunate that within minutes we had Bottlenose Dolphins within metres of the RIB, we eventually saw two females with a calf of about 18months of age, magic!!!

ok so you try photographing Bottlenose Dolphins with a bridge camera!!!

Further along the coast three Atlantic Grey Seals were hauled out, birds included Shag, Great Cormorant, Gannet and Manx Shearwater as well as a variety of gulls.
Brilliant 45mins, Brilliant experience and well worth the £25 for three of us. based on our experience today definitely use  www.seamor.org

Two Shags and a Great Cormorant

Kittiwake nests, from this years breeding season



Sea Cliffs to the east of New Quay.

Tuesday 25th August 2015

07:15hrs a walk around the lake with few dog walkers about, and very little else apart from 54 Mute Swan, 30+ Sand Martins a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Great Crested Grebe trying to eat, of all things, a large ELASTIC BAND!!!, thankfully it looked as though the bird gave up on it



some of the 54 Mute Swans on the lake this morning,
apologies for the picture quality?? a bit bright

I did a bit of botanising, to identify the willows growing around the lake as there is a desire? by the local residents association to have them cut back, I found Crack-willow Salix fragilis, Purple Willow Salix purpurea and Grey Willow Salix cinerea.
The Grey Willow is easily managed by "laying" stems so that they can regrow.

Willow leaves, L-R Crack-willow, Purple Willow and Grey Willow

Next weeks blogs will, hopefully, subject to technology be coming from mainland Greece!! if not normal service will resume on 8th September.

Sunday 23rd August 2015

After three inches of rain in the last four days the weather was set to get better this evening, and it did!

A swallow roost ringing session had been planned at Oxwich Marsh NNR and so at 18:30 I met up with Owain and Keith to be joined later by, Darren, Phil, Wayne and Heather.

An additional set of three nets caught, Reed, Sedge warblers and Whitethroat so was set to add variety to the main event of  85 Swallows with a good smattering of adult birds, and four Sand Martins as well as a Common Pipistrelle bat which was released unharmed.

the first few Swallows being ringed

Wing measurement one of the "biometrics" we take



Juvenile Swallow Z544022 soon to make that epic journey to South Africa

Saturday 22nd August 2015 (2)

When the sun decided to come this afternoon I thought I'd take a look at the Bumble Bees in the garden.

I was pleased to identify six species of Bumblebee plus a Hairy Footed Flower bee.

The photos are a of the very few that stayed still long enough to snap.

Garden Bumblebee (happy to be corrected)

White-tailed bumblebee

Common carder bee

There was also a couple of "garden" Orb spiders in the garden

"garden" Orb spider

Saturday 22nd August 2015

Despite the rain I ventured out this morning, first to the Water Park, where the highlights were a Garganey, a Kingfisher, 10 Gadwall and about 150 Sand Martins.

Sand Martins and a Swallow having a brush up in the rain

Then I drove to Kidwelly Quay where I had, 307 Redshank and 24 Greenshank, and got very wet!!!

Redshank

a distant Whimbrel

Next and last stop was Pembrey Harbour with high tide due for 11:25, here there were     658 Oystercatchers, 3 Gannet, 1 Peregrine, 85 Ringed Plover, 10 Greenfinch feeding on the high tide line, and about 11 Linnets; made for an interesting couple of hours.

Adult Linnet (front) with juvenile behind

Thursday 20th August 2015

With high tide of 6.9m due around 10am, I visited WWT Llanelli.

Totals included 35 Greenshank: 8 Dunlin: 31 Little Egret: 15 Lapwing: 1 Whimbrel: 1 Ruff (a juvenile).

Juvenile Ruff in front of two Redshank

Wednesday 19th August 2015

YESTERDAY evening I joined a bat survey at Carmarthen on the River Towy, it was mild and quite windless.

Using "bat detectors" or more correctly I used a Heterodyne, and the Bat Conservation Trust guy used a very fancy Frequency division detector and Time expansion recorder.

We detected three species of bat, Noctule, Soprano Pipistrelle, and Common Pipistrelle; effectively one of the largest highest flying bats and the joint two smallest bats.

Obviously no photographs....

A really enjoyable couple of hours