Tag Archives: sheep

The Welsh sheep

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in animals, nature

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When I relocated from New Zealand to Wales in 2015, it didn’t occur to me that I was swopping one sheep-filled nation with another but so it has turned out.

170626 Welsh sheep (1)

Wales has around 10 million sheep; Welsh lamb is considered a delicacy; beautiful wool is produced locally; and I sometimes hear the same lewd sheep jokes that I used to hear in New Zealand.

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The Welsh have taken their worship of the sheep one step further than New Zealand – there’s a National Wool Museum and, no, I haven’t been – but New Zealand still has a higher sheep to human ratio than Wales, at 7 to 1 as opposed to a measly 4 to 1.

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I met this friendly Welsh local on my recent birding trip to Lliw Reservoirs.

Botanising, with insects

30 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in animals, birds, insects, molluscs, nature, slugs

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As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I returned from my last Botany Group walk with more photos of insects – and other living creatures – than plants. The Gorse weevil got a blog of its own yesterday; now here are some of our other finds.

Firstly, a couple more weevils, both on nettle and the second one is definitely a Neetle weevil (Phyllobius pomacues) but I’m not sure about the first. The Click beetle was also found on nettle.

These two were at a farm we passed through; the sheep was lording it over the home paddock and the rooster was king of the farmyard. Both handsome dudes!

A nice little grouping of slug species, with their small friend, the Granny Grey, and a grasshopper. There were lots of these hopping round on grass and rushes in a boggy field. It may be a juvenile Meadow grasshopper but I’m not 100% sure.

A little flock of Micropterix cathella moths were feasting on this grass flower, and there were lots of other small moths, probably one of the Bactra species, plus an unidentified spider with a distinctive striped body.

And last, but certainly not least, these Bloody-nosed beetles (Timarcha tenebricosa). The photo on the left shows the chubby larva and on the right is the adult beetle munching on a grass stalk.

Two go cuckoo at Camber

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in birds, coastal fauna, nature, walks

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I celebrated my birthday, with my friend Jill, with a quick morning romp around the bird hides at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, followed by an afternoon Sussex Wildlife Trust guided walk around the inland part of the reserve, including a peek inside the normally locked Camber Castle. And what a superb day it was!

170524 Rye Harbour fauna (10)

I’ve already blogged about one of the highlights, the gorgeous Avocets and their chicks; another was hearing, and catching a fleeting glimpse of my very first Cuckoo. Here are a few more (not so crisp) photos of the wonderful (but mostly distant) wildlife we saw: Common terns, Skylark, Oystercatchers and Dunlin, Black-headed gull, Ringed plover, Gadwall and Shelduck, Lapwing and a Pied wagtail, Marsh harrier, and a number 72; plus, not pictured, Redshank, Coot, Cormorant, Tufted duck, Mallard, Little ringed plover, Grey heron, Kestrel and Whitethroat, as well as the more common birds. A birthday to remember!

Bottoms up!

11 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in animals, nature, nature photography

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One thing about animal photography: your models don’t always co-operate, and you often end up with photos of the less flattering parts of their anatomy. I thought a selection of my photos of these might at least bring a smile (and, actually, the zebra photo is one of my all-time favourites).

160411 bottoms (1)

‘Froth at the top, dregs at the bottom, but the middle excellent.’ ~ Voltaire

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‘I know up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights.’ ~ Dr Seuss, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories

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‘Bottoms up or bottoms down, / Either way no one will frown.’ ~ Mike Anderson

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‘My mind is trouble, like a fountain stirred; / And I myself see not the bottom of it.’ ~ William Shakespeare

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‘My bottom is so big it’s got its own gravitational field.’ ~ Carol Vorderman

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‘One mustn’t look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.’ ~ Gustave Flaubert

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‘When you’re average, you’re just as close to the bottom as you are the top.’ ~ Alfred North Whitehead

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‘The artist needs to understand the truth that lies at the bottom of an enigma.’ ~ John Maeda

Feeling sheepish?

29 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in animals, nature, nature photography

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I come from a land of sheep (New Zealand) and now I live in another (Wales). Sheep are not only important in the cultures and economies of both countries, they also figure in many aspects of our daily lives. We wear clothes made from their wool, use products made from their leather and, in the English language, we regularly use many sheep-based idioms.

sheep nz

If you’re feeling sheepish, you’re embarrassed because you know you’ve done something silly or wrong. You might be the black sheep of the family, the one who’s different, perhaps disreputable, maybe unloved. You should beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the dangerous person who’s pretending to be harmless. If you work as a manager, you might need to separate the sheep from the goats, i.e. separate those people who are competent and worth keeping from those who are not. If you fancy someone but feeling shy and a little foolish, you might make sheep’s eyes at them. And if you’re having trouble getting to sleep at night, then you could always try counting sheep!

sheep welsh chirk