Category Archives: winter

Birding at Dryslwyn, Cilsan Bridge and Tregaron Bog

02 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, walks, winter

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Up at 6, collected at 7 and off we headed, west along the M4 for a 9 o’clock meet up with our other Glamorgan Bird Club buddies at the foot of Dryslwyn Castle in mid Wales. This was unexplored territory for me and the scenery of the Tywi (or Towy) Valley was simply stunning, with castles and monuments seemingly on every hill top and the beautiful River Tywi meandering through the valley below them. It was clear but cold, with a bitter wind, and heavy frost and thick ice still blanketing those spots the sun could not reach. Later, we moved on to Tregaron Bog, also known as Cors Caron National Nature Reserve, a fabulous area of marsh and wetland. And what a superb day’s birding we had!

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A large flock of Lapwing on the fields next to the River Tywi, and a Grey heron flying in.

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Ducks, geese and Little grebes in the river.

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A Red kite looks for lunch from its perch on this big old dead tree.

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Looking towards Dinefwr Castle, with two swans flying off (possibly Mute but we also saw Whooper).

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A thrush checks through a mole hill for potential food.

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Too distant for clear shots, two Green sandpipers (and a Teal), from one of the hides at Tregaron Bog.

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Intrepid birders, well rugged up against the chill.

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Beautiful countryside around Tregaron Bog, where grazing ponies help to manage the wetland environment.

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A Red kite; one of several seen this day and spectacular birds to watch.

My species list for the day was: Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Pink-footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Goosander, Little Grebe, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Cormorant, Red Kite, Hen Harrier, Buzzard, Lapwing, Snipe, Curlew, Green Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Raven, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Wren, Treecreeper, Starling, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Robin, Stonechat, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Bullfinch. A further 7 species were seen by other members of our group but not by me: Peregrine, Common Gull, Rook, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Nuthatch, and Greenfinch.

Wild words: icicle

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in nature, weather, winter

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Icicle: noun; a hanging, tapering piece of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water (Oxford Dictionary). The word comes from the Old English word gicel, which morphed into ikyl or ikel, and later ickle, a word which is still used in parts of Yorkshire.

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My photos were taken on the Ely embankment in Cardiff Bay yesterday, as Britain shivers its way through a blast of chilly Siberian air. The combination of freezing temperatures and the constant lapping of the water on to the branches that litter the shoreline resulted in some beautiful icicles.

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Fluffing up

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, winter

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The biting wind seems to find the smallest crack in your several layers of clothing to nip at exposed flesh, your hands feel frost-bitten even though you’ve got your thickest gloves on, and the tip of your nose is so cold that you can no longer feel it. Yet there on a fence post directly in front of you, equally exposed to the wintery weather, is a chirpy wee Robin, singing its heart out, seemingly oblivious to the chill. How does it do it?

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Well, the answer is in the fluffing up of its feathers. If you’ve ever slept under a down- or feather-filled duvet, you’ll know how incredibly warm feathers can be, and that’s especially true for our wee Robin. You see, feathers are a brilliant form of insulation material – feathers trap air close to the bird’s body so, in winter, they trap the warmth of the bird’s body heat. The more fluffed up the feathers are, the more warm air they trap, the more cosy is our little Robin.

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Wild words: apricity

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, winter

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This wonderful old word doesn’t appear in the Oxford Dictionary online, presumably because they’ve replaced it with something trendy like ‘mansplain’ and ‘youthquake’. Well, call me old-fashioned but I much prefer something old and meaningful to these modern inventions.

So, then, apricity (thanks to the Merriam-Webster) ‘appears to have entered our language in 1623, when Henry Cockeram recorded (or possibly invented) it for his dictionary The English Dictionary; or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words.’ And it means ‘the warmth of the sun in winter’, something even this gull was seen, last week, to enjoy and appreciate.

180207 apricity

Wild words: catkin

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in nature, spring, trees, winter

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Catkin: According to the Oxford Dictionary, a late 16th century noun, from the now-obsolete Dutch word katteken for kitten (how sweet is that?), meaning a downy, hanging flowering spike of trees such as willow and hazel, pollinated by the wind.

And now is the time to see catkins, at least where I live in south Wales. I took these photos of male Hazel catkins (Corylus avellana) earlier this week, the gusty breeze helping to spread their yellow pollen, hopefully to fall on the tiny pink female flowers of neighbouring trees, there to develop into fruit and later nuts.

180131 Hazel female flower

Another winter ten

28 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in flowers, nature, wildflowers, winter

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It was about time I had another go at WildflowerHour’s current challenge: ‘our weekly winter challenge is #thewinter10 which is to find ten different wild flowers in bloom each week. Once you’ve found them, work out what they are, and post them for the rest of us to see.’

So, on Thursday’s walk, though I was really looking for birds, I also remembered to cast my eyes downwards for flowers. And, on one relatively short stretch along the western edge of Cardiff Bay, I found my ten: Creeping buttercup (I think). a Dandelion species, Nipplewort, Petty spurge, possibly Common mouse-ear, Red dead nettle, Groundsel, Sweet meadow grass, Gorse, and Red clover.

Heads up for Big Garden Birdwatch

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

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I don’t have a garden but that doesn’t mean I can’t take part in this weekend’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch ’cause you can also do your count in your local park.

All it takes is an hour of your time on either the 27th, 28th or 29th of January, a pen and paper so you can make a note of the birds you see, and maybe a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits to keep you going.

The specific list of birds to be counted is Blackbird, Blue tit, Chaffinch, Coal tit, Collared dove, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great tit, House sparrow, Greenfinch, Long-tailed tit, Magpie, Robin, Starling and Woodpigeon. Of course, the RSPB is also interested in any other birds you see in your garden (not flying overhead), and any other creatures that have visited your garden in the past year – a mole or a hedgehog or maybe a fox?

Here’s the link so all you Brits out there can check the details and get involved.

 

Yellow-legged gull

15 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in birds, nature, winter

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Back in November, I thought I’d found my first Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) – and it still might have been – though I’m really not convinced about it. But, this gull, the one pictured here, is absolutely, one-hundred-percent definitely a Yellow-legged gull … even though its legs are not yellow. Have I not written previously that gulls are tricksy?!

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As you might guess from looking at it, this is not an adult gull. I’m reliably informed, by the expert birding friend who identified it for me, that this gull is in its second winter. My bird guide book tells me these gulls take four years to reach adult plumage so it’s half way there. Its age is the reason its legs are not yet yellow.

One of the main keys to its identification is the colour of the feathers on its back: Yellow-legged gulls are about mid way between the light grey of Herring gulls and the darker grey of Lesser black-backeds. The two photos above show my Yellow-legged gull, on the left, and, on the right, a Herring gull of the same age. I can see the difference in the feather colour and, to my eye, the shape of the head and bill look slightly different but I’m not sure I’d be confident of IDing one of these gulls without expert help.

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New Year Plant Hunt

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in flowers, nature, plants, winter

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Did you do the New Year Plant Hunt?

 
Running from Saturday 30 December until today, Tuesday 2 January, this was the BSBI’s (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) seventh annual plant hunt event. The idea is to spend three hours on one of those days (or every day, if you’re as keen as Hoary mustard), in one location (or several, if you like to roam like Ivy), trying to find as many wild or naturalised plants that are flowering as you can. You then share your finds on social media and, most importantly, you also need to send your records in to the BSBI team so they can analyse the results (full details on their website here).

On the last day of 2017 I took myself off on a wander around Penarth township and marina – basically, within the square kilometre that is ST1872 – and was delighted to find 15 different wild plants in bloom. The Field scabious was a particular highlight!