Curlew

30th August

Nevern Estuary - high tide

sunny, dry

I saw a Curlew here just where the left bank meets the river. It flew off eventually with a 'curlew' call. Lovely! There were loads of Canada Geese there too, taking a break on their long journey to who knows where.

Curlew in Welsh is Gylfynir.

Ty Canol Woods

29th August

Weather: sunny spells, dry

2pm

Dad and me went for a short walk to the ancient woodlands of Ty Canol Woods near Newport in Pembrokeshire. It was very beautiful and very quiet. We barely saw or heard another soul. We heard plenty of birds though. I'm getting to know the songs of quite a few by now - the Wren (y Dryw), Nuthatch (Delor y Cnau) and Blue Tit (Titw Tomos Las) and the Goldfinch (Nico) too. I know the easy ones like a Woodpigeon (Colomen) and a Jay (Sgrech y Coed) too. And crows!

We didn't see any other animals. It .was very quiet there. But you can't expect nature to put on a show for you every time you go for a walk. Sometimes, it's just quiet.

But very beautiful... Prydferth iawn.

When we got back to the car, we saw this foot in a wall. Can you see it too?

It was a lovely walk too!

Hwyl! See ya!

Butterfly Meadow

The other side of the Nevern river        28^th of August

The other side of Llwyngwair Manor’s River – the Nevern

Afternoon

2:00pm

Today me and my Dad went the other side of the river in Llwyngwair on our way we heard a Nuthatch and saw it hunting the tree with its beak for food, suddenly swooped two beautiful but NOISY Tree creepers and chased each other, then one went flying somewhere else and the other was chasing a Bumble Bee!

After when we were in the woods I spotted a Forest Bug.

The woods on the other side of the river look like a jungle.

When we got to the field (where I once saw a fox from the other side of the river) where we were told a lot of butterflies I called it the Butterfly Border!

We spotted…

·       Small Tortoiseshell

·       Speckled Wood

·       Red Admiral

And some Dragonflies

On our way back we paddled through the cold river - it was great - and then two Kingfishers (Glas y Dorlan) flew past us!


Well See ya! Hwyl!

Other summer wildlife videos

Over the summer holidays we have seen lots of wildlife. Here are some of the films we have taken just using my Dad's mobile phone.

At Llysdinam, we saw a spider with what looked like its babies in a white sack underneath its belly...

Here's another hard-working spider in our back yard. It spun a web across the path during the night. How it did this I have no idea...

 

 

 Here's some kind of grasshopper or cricket in the woods of Llwyngwair...

More dragonfly action! I love them loads...

And here's an ants nest at Lam Cam...

and to finish off, a wild rabbit in North Wales.

Llysdinam Newts and Caterpillars - & skimming stones at Lam Cam

Newbridge-on-Wye, Powys

 

Cardiff University Field Centre, Llysdinam

 

Thursday 20^th of August

 

Today we went to an old University Field Centre where people from Cardiff University used to come to study nature but it has recently closed down. My Dad used to go there a lot when he was young to see the students and watch them work with birds, newts, polecats, badgers and loads of other animals.

 

The pond is still there and is being re-worked. It has a new path and loads of life thriving in it. By the pond we found…

·         2 small Smooth Newts (Madfall Ddwr Gyffredin - Lissotriton Vulgaris)

 

 

·         Nuthatch (Delor y Cnau - Sitta europaea)   

 

 

·       2 Privet Hawk Moth Caterpillars (Gwalchwyfyn Yr Yswydd - Sphinx ligustri)

 

 

 

 

I am getting to know how the Nuthatch calls now. It has a whistling whoop-whoop sort of call.

                                                                                      

After visiting Llysdinam we went down to the Wye river and a bend near Llysdinam called Lam Cam (in Welsh it means sort of 'Big Bend'). It's a great place to see wildlife. But you need to be careful near the river.

We skimmed stones across the river and then saw a Yellow Wagtail (Sigldigwt) ...

and loads of Minnows (Crothell) in the small rock pools left as the river went down.

This huge old tree grows next to the river. The roots must be a great place for wildlife to hide. I think it was a Beech tree (Ffawydden)

Plenty of places for animals to hide...

Looking up at the huge gnarled mossy Beech tree

 

 

Interesting things again today. And all on our doorstep!

 

Hwyl! See yah!!

 

Bug Hotel - open for business!

Bug Hotel! Gwesty'r Pryf!

The really cool that we have done this summer is build a bug hotel in our garden. Dad began it during the week of the Royal Welsh Show in July. Then we all helped finish it later on in August.

We recycled things that we found in and around the garden to build a safe place for all sorts of bugs to thrive and get shelter (hopefully).

Here's how we did it. Hope you like it!

Adding old pallets...
 

Filling up the pallets...

Adding all sorts of stuff...

Nearly finished...

Wedi gorffen! Finito!
 

We used old bricks, straw, pine cones, old plastic bottles, rolled up paper and cardboard, old pipe insulation, bamboo sticks, slates and old roofing, old flower pots, old bird houses. Dad also drilled holes in loads of bits of wood (which he really enjoyed doing!) To finish it off Mam collected pinecones and Nanna gathered moss for the top. We got some old slates from Tadcu too. A real family effort!

Glaslyn Ospreys

At Glaslyn Ospreys Nature Reserve

 

30^th of July

Afternoon

Weather: Sunny

On top of Wales! (but not so sunny)
 

 

After a tiring morning climbing Snowdon, we went to Glaslyn Ospreys Nature Reserve and saw some very interesting things. The reserve is now run by some of the people who live in North Wales.

 

We saw...

A GreaterSpotted Wood Pecker (Cnocell Fraith Fwyaf - Dendrocopus major) zipping along the river bank.

A Shorttailed Vole (again - like the one in Portmeirion) (Llygoden Bengron Y Gwair - Microtus Agrestis)

 

 

Many Chaffinch (Ji-binc - Fringilla coelebs)

 

 

Many Goldfinch (Nico - Carduelis spinus)

 

 

And some very busy Grasshoppers (Sbonc y Gwair - Caelifera)

 

 

The man at the Nature Reserve had recently found…

A DeathsHead Hawk Moth (Gwalchwyfyn Penglog - Acherontia Iachesis)

 

 

If this Moth is irritated it squeaks like a mouse! Wow!

He had also found a Horntail / Wood Wasp

 

 

At the back of its body it looks like a stinger but the female uses it to lay her eggs, they can’t harm you at all!

As well there were videos of the Ospreys LIVE and RECORDED  it was very interesting, thru the telescope you could see the pole and the cameras, the Ospreys huge nest and their heads popping out of the nest!

Here's me and my sister in an Ospreys nest! (not really :-)

 

Am ddiwrnod! What a Busy day!

Hwyl! See ya!