An odd place to find sandhoppers

Located near the entrance to Point Farm on the Dale Fort Road is a manhole containing the water meter for Dale Fort. While checking this the other day I disturbed a rock and to my great surprise several sandhoppers (Talitrus saltator) hopped out from underneath.  I've read of these creatures living high above the sea in caves and crevices on very exposed shores (subject to a lot of salty spray) but never in what I'd consider a purely terrestrial habitat.  Given the location I suppose there's a strong maritime influence.  Nevertheless, the site is about 30m vertically from the sea above what is a very sheltered shore.

Polecats

Not one but two!! I saw a polecat disappearing into the woodland at St. Brides Castle last night at 10.30 and then another a minute later along the road up to Windmill Farm.

A group from Tasker Milward School were lucky to see an adder on their Silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award practice expedition on the Preselis. It was seen at Bwlch Pennant on 31st March.

Flowers everywhere

I can't remember a time when it seems that all the flowers are out at the same time! The woodland at St. Brides Castle is already in full swing with a great display of bluebells and red campion. There is even the odd one out on Skomer although the ground is looking really parched, just like last year. It looks like the sea campion and thrift are going to struggle again. It seems that this event was triggered by the warm spell we had a few weeks ago.

Foxes galore

After not having seen any foxes for a while, I have seen 3 foxes in the last two days - one crossing the field behind our house in full sunshine at 5:30 pm, one at a similar time of day on the coast path below Waterston and one freshly dead by the road near Blackbridge. I don't know much about the timing of fox breeding but these all looked like rather scruffy females who were out and about as they were desperate for something to eat having been stuck in the den feeding hungry cubs. I see Derek also saw one in daylight eyeing the Glossy Ibises at Marloes Mere yesterday.
Rosemary

Garden Weasel

This was our first ever garden weasel - I was alerted to its presence by the most awful (ie something being killed) noise down by the shed. I investigated and saw some movement, then a weasel popped up on top of a pile of paving slabs, looked at me for a few seconds, then disappeared. I waited to see if it would re-appear and amazingly it did - back up on to the paving slabs, only about 4 feet away, and it looked straight through me at something very interesting behind me. I kept quite still and it jumped down off the slabs, ran straight between my legs and under some big sheets of blue plastic behind me. What a sighting - brilliant! No camera to hand, of course.
Perhaps the presence of weasels explains why our rat population seems to have diminished and rabbits never seem to get a foothold?
Rosemary