Viewing entries tagged
GWT

GWT Plant ID Course

A full day at Central Valley Nature Reserve today with GWT to learn more about Plants! An area that I really need work on! I have to admit though, despite coming home having learned quite a bit about plants, I was slightly distracted by the many insects and birds we encountered on our venture into the green. Especially the Dragonflies that were in abundance today in what ended up being a beautiful day! Perhaps a bit too beautiful because I totally underestimated how hot it would be and I must admit, I think I have a bit of sun stroke as I'm red as red can be and ended up sleeping off a terrible migraine for 2 hours when I got home. 

I'm feeling ok now though and have edited a few of my favourite pictures of today. My favourite was in-fact a Bumble Bee Mimic which is actually a Hoverfly! (Volucella bombylans). By far the best Hoverfly mimic I've ever seen. Male Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly and Mullein Moth Caterpillar showed very well for the camera too. 

Volucella bombylans Female Bumble Bee Hoverfly

Below is a picture of the happy bunch, great company and all enthusiastic to learn which really helped with my focus. 

Gwent Bugs

This time of year is awesome for insects, and the very reason why we get so many birds migrating here for spring/summer. The shear diversity of insects is key to certain species survival. Drinker Moth Caterpillars are a personal favourite of Cuckoos, so much so that Cuckoo's time their arrival perfectly to indulge on them. Each one of these species below deserve a blog in itself but it's that time of year that I just need to get outside! I hate being sat behind the computer editing photographs at this time of year. There is so much to see and so much more to learn. 

A lot of these species below were taken at a new reserve for me at Henllys bog which is a Gwent Wildlife Trust reserve. Good friend and Spider Expert Mike Kilner showed me around the reserve with a superior knowledge of plants and insects which was really helpful at that reserve! Everywhere you step there is something special..

Dormouse Course with GWT

What a fantastic way to have a presentation! Got to be the best setting I've had for this type of thing! I would have come to this no matter what was on the screen but it just to happen to be really informative too. 

We conducted our survey on the face of the Blorenge Mountain and naturally had incredible views of the Skirrid Mountain and surrounding mountains with Breacon Beacons to the left and Black Mountains to the right.  

The picture below shows a single Hazel nut which is being pushed up in the air by a growing Bluebell on the woodland bed... This was pretty much the theme of todays survey work. There were literally thousands of Hazels to check and despite being educated in finding the right type of evidence, we didn't actually find any signs of Dormouse in this particular woodland. That's not to say they aren't there though, we just didn't find the evidence. 

This goes to show how hard it is sometimes to find species and quick half hearted surveys are not always going to produce an accurate reading of what ecology is living on the land. 

Safe to say though, I had an amazing time on a dry sunny day on the Blorenge and I'm looking forward to any future opportunities to do this type of work. Dormice are a declining and protected species and if found at the nest, cannot be disturbed in any way without a Schedule 1 License. I've never seen one before so have no photographs of my own to show you so here is a link to a fabulous photograph pulled up from Google search.