Red Admiral

1 in my garden at St. Ishmaels this afternoon.

Nice weather for ducks...

Fairly quiet for me over the past few days, but a windy walk along what I call "The private walk" (the road leading from Angle village towards Kilpaison) had a few treats in store. Within 30 seconds of arriving the Squacco heron showed up, along with a little egret (the first of around 20 today). Many waders including redshank, Oystercatchers and curlews. Around 50 or so Lapwings, a flock of around 30 Golden Plovers, 7 or 8 Great Crested Grebe and a lone Razorbill and solitary female Scaup. A first in that area for me though was a grey seal near the point at the boathouse. On returning to the beginning of the Pointhouse road, no sign of the Squacco heron but there was a kingfisher sheltering under the old bridge. I currently have family visiting from Shrewsbury and their bird species count for the day was 46, including a life tick in the Squacco heron. A good day all round! Big hike around Stackpole tomorrow, so fingers crossed for a few interesting sightings.

No It's Not a Twig!

It's a Brimstone Moth caterpillar likely looking for somewhere to pupate.

Rescued from my son's car tyre, of all places, before he went travelling!

Fungi and feathers.

A few shots from the past few days. Lots of lovely fungi about, a few thrushes and plenty of beautiful berries. After 3 consecutive days of no otters at Stackpole, I managed to spot two of them and was able to point one of them out to a small group of ramblers who were over the moon at seeing otters after numerous unsuccesful visits to the Scottish Islands, even though they were convinced it was a remote control tourist attraction at first! I don't know about other PWS blog visitors, but I get a great deal of satisfaction from showing off what Pembrokeshire has to offer.

Dippers

I've just seen two dippers downstream of the weir in Haverfordwest.

Speckled Wood

We saw numerous speckled wood butterflies enjoying the warm sunny weather on Saturday at St Brides Woods. All of them were in a rather torn state and it will be interesting to see how long our butterflies will survive now that the weather has turned colder. One red admiral was seen as well. Please post any other butterfly sightings to see who spots the last of the season!

Free the Gannets trip.

More pictures can be found on:

Skomer Blog


Cheers
Chris Taylor
Skomer Warden

Smooth Newt

I found this smooth newt in my garden underneath some wood.

Teilo Davies Blwyddyn 4 Ysgol Cymraeg Glan Cleddau

Starlings

The field next to my house near Marloes is alive with the first migrating starlings of the season. They are probably roosting at Slebech, a wildlife spectacle not be missed.

It's Not Over Yet!

Though winter birds like Redwing and Fieldfare have already been seen in the county - yesterday afternoon 2 swallows were seen over St Ishmaels.

3 days at Stackpole

I managed to get out around the Stackpole estate 3 times in as many days and there's been a few bits and bobs of interest.

Lots of fungi about, including some big Dryads Saddles (see if you can spot the 10p I used for scale reference) and some weird fungus that I was unable to identify (any ideas?). Wish i had caught it before it had started rotting.

The otters were showing as well as ever and didn't seem concerned about my dog Molly despite the fact she normally chases anything with fur or feathers. Talking to one couple today, they mentioned that someone had told them a dead otter had been found around the estate. I knew that one had been reported as ill, so I'm assuming it's the same one.

Possible sighting of a Goshawk, though I really couldn't say for definite. A beautiful kingfisher, though too far away to photograph (if anybody wants to give me a couple of grand for a telephoto lens feel free...). 2 very large pike seen from the 8 arch bridge, a smart looking grey wagtail at the secret bridge.

A beautiful time of year at the moment, and a great time to be out exploring.

Photographic competition at the Welsh Wildlife Centre Cilgerran

This is a photographic print competition run by the Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran. All entries must be the photographer’s own work. Prints may be of any size, but mounted, with the maximum size of mount being 20” x 16”.

Closing date for receiving entries is Friday 22. October 2010.

The theme is ‘Welsh Nature’ which can be interpreted in any way the photographer wishes: landscape, seascape, nature photography in all its forms. However the photograph must have been taken in Wales during the last year. Entry fee is £10.00 per person for up to three prints.

 

Prizes:

1 £500 worth of photography equipment from Celtic Vision, Narberth

2 Binoculars worth £250 and a day trip to Skomer

3 Day trip to Skomer.

 

For more information and an entry form please go to our website

http://www.welshwildlife.org

and click on News and Events from the top toolbar, then from the left hand side of the page click on Latest Events then Events at the Welsh Wildlife Centre.

New born seal pup in the daytime

Saturday 3 October
A windy morning on the Deer Park. We saw several seal pups with their
mothers on the first beach south of the headland. One mother had given
birth a few minutes before we arrived - the placenta [larger than a
human placenta] was just next to her, between her and the pup. She
needed to get the pup to move further up towards the top of the beach as
the tide was coming in, and we saw her trying to encourage it. But she
must have been exhausted, the pup was learning how to move and it was a
slow process. After a while, a wave washed over the pup and swept the
placenta away. The pup did get a bit of a move on after that and would
have been safe after a while.

Alison Crowdy

Pembroke Millpond

A walk along Pembroke Millpond in search of the Black Tern that's been seen recently proved fruitful. It was showing very well and I watched it for a good twenty minutes before I left. It was swooping up and down the central area of the pond in a very acrobatic manner - hence the slightly blurry photos! Also present were many Little Grebes and the usual mallards, Wigeons and a strange looking duck, most likely a hybrid. A pretty grey wagatail rounded off the stroll nicely.

Western Conifer Seed Bug

Regret not too good a picture in artificial light -

  Native to the USA and introduced into Europe in 1999, this species has since spread rapidly and during the autumn of 2008 and 2009 influxes of immigrants were reported from the coast of southern England, with a wide scatter of  records inland.

This bug was found in our bathroom window apparently they are attracted to light and many enter buildings in search of hibernation sites in the autumn.


mike p

Caterpillar

Found a Fox Moth Macrothylacia rubi caterpillar on the Deer Park this morning. Wish I had had  my camera with me.

Hwyl Fawr

Iori Davies Ysgol Cymraeg Glan Cleddau Year 2

Random thoughts...

In the past 2 weeks I've seen 3 dead polecats around the county, all over 10 miles apart from each other. I was wondering if anybody has noticed an increase in live sightings or signs of increased population.

Recent wildlife sightings include:

Young newts (possibly Great Crested) at the back of Broadhaven South.

Many toads.

6 Choughs at Freshwater West playing on the breeze.

Some very noisy Jays at Stackpole.

Still quite a few dragonflies around the county.

Little Grebes at Westfield Pill.

On a semi-related note, on my frequent walks around the Stackpole Estate, I've noticed a lot of the fishermen seem to be ignoring the designated fishing spots and are fishing from where they want, including on the 8 Arch Bridge and under it. I know for a fact they have been disturbing some of the birds and other wildlife and wondered if anyone has seen the same or even confronted them about it?

Anyway, attached are a few photos from around the county of random bits and bobs that may be of interest.

Blackening wax-cap

Photographed at Merepool Valley behind the sand dunes at Broadhaven South.

Excellent season for fungi

This parasol mushroom was shot on the Deer Park. They are particularly abundant this year and I am hearing reports of a good crop of field mushrooms as well.