Wild Goose Chase at Whiteford Point, Gower

After the plastic nonsense yesterday, Whiteford provided some real wild geese! Not a bad day today at Whiteford with the winter visitors still showing well. A Jack Snipe was seen on the way to the hide with 10+ Snipe. The Hide, possibly the coldest anywhere in the world, is well placed to view the Burry Inlet's specialities. At least 2 (possibly 3) Slavonian Grebe, 213 Brent Goose, 9 Red-breasted Merganser and 56 Eider. Also present 5 Shoveler, 3 Common Scoter and 12 Great Crested Grebe as well as a good variety of waders. No raptors at all was unexpected.

Brent Geese feeding in front of the hide.


Raft of Eider diving together


Slavonian Grebe from Hide

Yellow Whitlowgrass on Pennard Castle

The Yellow Whitlowgrass (Draba aizoides) on Pennard castle was reported as starting to flower by Nigel Ajax-Lewis last week. Today I counted 80 plants in flower with another 40 non-flowering plants, though I probably missed a good few smaller plants higher up.

Here's what these plants looked like back on 6th February http://goweros.blogspot.com/2010/02/pennard-castle.html

Barnacle Goose over Garden

A Barnacle Goose flew over our garden in Cimla today. Initially with 2 Canada Geese but about 30 secs later it passed over on its own. We get parties of Canada and Greylag over the house regularly and a small wildfowl collection is kept locally. The first time it passed over flying SE with 2 Canadas but second time it flew W towards Gower. It was very vocal on both occasions. The origins of this Barnacle Goose might be hard to prove but it may be worth keeping an eye on the Brents around the Burry Inlet just in case?

Spurge-laurel in Ilston Cwm

Spurge-laurel (Daphne laureola), a memeber of the Thymeleaceae, is a small shrub native of woodland on limestone. It has a very restricted distribution in South Wales and Ilston Cwm is a good place to look for it. The flowers are concealed beneath the leaves towards the ends of each shoot.

Also noticeable on the woodland floor were the fruiting bodies of the Scarlet Elf Cup fungus (Sarcoscypha austriaca). For differences between this species and the almost identical Sarcoscypha coccinea see http://wbrc.org.uk/worcRecd/Issue%2018/scarlet_elf_cup.htm

Adders at Nicholaston

Up to 7 Adders were seen and photographed by Mark Newton today in Nicholaston Woods today. For more of Mark's excellent images see http://www.welshwildlife.com/

Grey-cushioned Grimmia

A new, more user-friendly, fieldguide to the Mosses and Liverworts of Great Britain and Ireland has recently been published that aims to make this difficult group more accessible to naturalists. It's very well put together with lots of photographs and illustrations and will certainly be tempting me to delve a little more into the world of lower plants.
Grey-cushioned Grimmia (Grimmia pulvinata) is a distinctive and common species to look out for on base-rich rocks and walls. It's common in our street though this one was photographed on the limestone cliffs at Rhossili yesterday.
Check out http://hosting.sleath.co.uk/bbs/

A few recent bird sightings...

Last week I flushed a Short-eared Owl and 4 Jack Snipe from the rush flush at Whiteford. On Sunday Eddie Hunter reported that the Lesser Scaup was still present along with 3 Greater Scaup at Eglwys Nunydd Reser. Yesterday, I counted 130+ Guillemots and a few Razorbills back on the cliffs of the Outer Worm's Head and today at Llanrhidian there were 2 Green Sandpipers and a Kingfisher.