Corals Caves and Caterpillars

And a few flowers of course

The trip on Sunday 16th May was a great success with a keen bunch of members, and some new fiends who will hopefully become members taking to the hills above Penwyllt in the Swansea valley. The walk was to take place in the Ogof Fynnon Ddu Nature reserve which was the first national nature reserve in the UK to be defined specifically because of it's caves. It does however contain a lot more than that as we were to see

After a brief introduction to the geology we headed up the tramway to the limestone pavement which was to be the feature of the day botanically.

Arriving there it was plain to see the difference botanically between the sheep grazed are outside the fencing, and the  area inside that was flourishing

But before we focused on that there was at least a moment to admire the superb corals in the limestone such as this colony which was nearly half a meter across

There were a number of plants we had come to see, but probably the most noteworthy for the site was the Hairly Greenweed (Genista pilosa)  which the society were asked to see whether it was still present on our last formal trip up some 15 years ago. Just as then we were able to find it and can report that there are a few patches so it looks healthy

As well as the plants we were able to find quite a few moth caterpillars, sunning themselves on the rocks. I believe this is some form of eggar Caterpillar and they were very common on the pavement   

We retreated from the top of the hill for our lunch because of some slight rain and took shelter in the entrance of Ogof Fynnon ddu which is the deepest ave in the UK when measured top to bottom .

As we were not fully equipped we were only able to shelter just inside the entrance and admire the scale of the passages

After this we descended to the old Silica brick works via the tram road and admired what man can achieve and how much of the landscape is not natural. Since returning home I have purchased the excellent Penwyllt book by Peter Burgess  which means I know a lot more about the site now and I should clearly have read it before I started

Oh well.. maybe next time

Regards

Andy

Unusual Bird Feeding Pictures

Isn't the Internet wonderful !

In terms of Wildlife photographers there are many excellent practitioners out there.  I have recently been entertained by 2 excellent photographers on the Olympus UK e-Group forum who have posted fascinating pictures of bird feeding behaviour

with many thanks to Peter and Peter I would like to ask if there is anyone who can comment on how usual or otherwise the following feeding behaviours are.

The first is from Peter Drury who is based in Portsmouth and posts wonderful wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

The selection in question was entitled  Duck! There's a flying crab!  and can be seen in the e-group in detail where Peter explains how the Mallard picked the crab up and refused to give it away despite being mobbed by the Black Headed Gull.

As Peter says "The normal food of a Mallard is small aquatic invertebrates, seeds, roots, shoots and grain. A crab hardly falls into any of these categories.Comments welcome as always"

The second fascinating picture I have seen recently was from "PeterBirder" from Braintree in Essex who also posts excellent wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

Peter posted a fascinating series of pictures showing a male Blackbird trying to feed a whole mouse to his offspring

Once again the full thread of pictures can be seen on the Olympus e-group

This Peter commented that "My take on all this is that the adult is inexperienced and possibly a "single dad" as we haven't seen the female or the third youngster that were around last week. I suspect that the mouse was killed by one of the local cats and "dad" saw this as an opportunity as worms are in short supply as "Andym" has suggested. I think that during the day one of the larger local birds, possibly the Sparrowhawk has taken the mouse".

Once again he would love to hear from anyone who has any experience of such behavior - please feel free to leave a comment here and we will pass it on to them

Their pictures and comments are re-posted here with their very kind permission permission and they retain full copyright over both

Recent Sightings

Been out and about recently photographing Snakes Head Fritillary in Wiltshire, Early Purple Orchids at Kenfig (plus a Small Blue Butterfly), and today Green Winged Orchids at Llantrisant, (see left). The latter were flowering amongst a mass of Cowslips.

Locally we have recorded many Orange Tips,Small Tortoishells, Green Veined Whites, Speckled Woods and Brimstones.

A Whole Summer of Wildlife Fun Coming up

Now is a good time to be checking the website for the updates to the programme that have been made and making sure that all of our events are in your diary

Once again Bruce Mcdonald is doing a massively good job in arranging a whole summer of wildlife orientated entertainment with a host of events that are suitable for all ages and levels of experience

To make things easier the recent updates are given here, but to make sure it's all in your diary we really do suggest taking a look at the programme, or event better print out a copy of the programme and share it with your friends or print out a copy of the membership form and send us a an application so you make sure you are kept up to date with our programme
  

Sat	16	July	10:00	F	Parc Bryn Bach	340 acres of mixed grass, woodland and lake near Tredegar in the company of a local ranger	Rangers
Thur	28	July	18:30	F	Hailey Park	An evening walk with some sweep nets to see what insects we can find along with flowers and trees	Members
Wed/Thu	10 or 11	August	18:30	F	Cardiff Bay Building Stones	An evening stroll around Cardiff Bay looking at building stones and their geology. Date still to be finalised - please check the blog for details	Lynda Garfield and Dave Wellings

if you are interested in any of the events, but not already a member we are happy to have you join us for a trial.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us via the details given on the website

Pond Life - an almost alien beauty

It's nice this time of year to get up close and personal with the damp patch in the back garden we call the pond. This little beauty of a flower, oft overlooked, is a Bogbean.

RHS Show

I thought this year’s RHS Show in Cardiff (8-10 April) was the best yet, after my visit on Friday. It had expanded to include two floral marquees, the show gardens and farmers’ market area, bandstand and “café quarter”. Among the show gardens was Cardiff Council Ranger Service’s lovingly recreated road side verge (below) complete with tyre tracks and some litter to highlight the biodiversity of such habitats. The National Museum Wales stall featured a pot of 7 dandelion species – all found in the same Cardiff garden. There are well over 200 species of dandelion in the UK and, if the diagram showing the characteristics to look for is anything to go by they are not easily distinguished. The National Botanic Garden of Wales had information on Barcode Wales, a biodiversity project to identify unique DNA sequences for the entire native flora of Wales, which was the subject of a recent Cardiff Naturalists Society talk.

Butterfly Sighting

Last Saturday, (2.4.11), whilst excavating a new vejetable plot, I was delighted to see a Male Brimstone gently floating across the garden. This was the first Brimstone we've recorded in Morganstown since we moved into the area in 2008, so a first for us.

Compensation for the backache from digging out all the rubble 'kindly' left by the house builder.Now I've just got to get rid of it!

Phill Blanning