Beautiful Demoiselle

male Beautiful Demoiselle (c) J. Driscoll

A little bit of a late posting but Jeff Driscoll has just sent me a few photos of Beautiful Demoiselles that he found on the Swansea Canal at Ynysmeudwy lower lock back in August. He also notes that there were particularly good numbers of them at this location, estimating between 20 and 30! Having only seen my first one of these this year I'll be paying this location a visit next year for certain.

female Beautiful Demoiselle (c) Jeff Driscoll

For more like these check out the link the link below

VC41 Dragonfly Blog

Catbirds in Morriston

Angie Jones may need to make alternative arrangements for feeding the birds in her garden!

(c) A. Jones

Red Deer at Margam

Early morning Stag

Paul Tyrrell wrote: 'Good to see so many fantastic birds on or near our patch so far this autumn, long may it continue. But as you know autumn is also the time of the red deer rut so with the weather set good for the weekend i headed to margam park for first light saturday morning, and i wasn't disappointed. There seemed to be one large stag holding an area with thirty or more hinds in it. there were half a dozen younger and much smaller males around, but any coming to close were quickly chased away, with much bellowing and stamping of the ground. The younger stags seemed quite happy to flex their muscles among them selves with some locking of antlers and much pushing and shoving but none with the strength or size to challenge the dominant stag. I later spoke to a chap who told me there was another large stag at the other end of the park with his own group of females. So i will definitely be going back in the next week or two, weather permitting of course.'

Stag with some of his hinds

Sun rise

Peregrine v Herring Gull

Dai Roberts wrote: 'I was down Whiteford yesterday out on the sand bank / rocks extending to the lighthouse carefully looking out for waders - educational reasons of course! There were a flock of mainly herring gulls perched on the bank behind me and I looked around when I heard a commotion. The main flock were just taking off rising into the air, very upset indeed. Two amid the crowd, did not take off as they were fighting. A closer look and I realised one of them was a peregrine falcon and it was wrestling with what appeared to be a juvenile herring gull. This went on for a couple of minutes, the gull making a lot of noise. The other gulls took no helpful movements and just flew off out onto the water. I did not see the peregrine make contact, but I suspect it did not strike the gull in the air, or if so very low down indeed. The gull fought well poor thing and did not look as if it had been stunned because it was hit in flight. I always thought gulls were immune to peregrine attack?'

Migrant moths in Nitten Field

First OS map of Gower (provided by Gordon Howe) with middle leg of
this Convolvulus Hawk-moth is pointing to Mewslade. 

Last night there was a good arrival of migrant moths into the UK and two traps set in the Nitten Field at Mewslade attracted a very good selection of these. The highlight was a single specimen of the Old World Webworm (Hellula undalis), the first record in Glamorgan of this tropical species.

Numbers of all 50 species recorded are given below, with migrants shown in bold - more photos here http://moonmoths.blogspot.com/:

Caloptilia stigmatella (1), Mompha subbistrigella (1), Light Brown Apple Moth (7), Rhomboid Tortrix (2), Acleris hastiana (1), Eudonia angustea (4), Old World Webworm (1), Rusty-dot Pearl (39), Rush Veneer (1), Vestal (19), Red-green Carpet (1), Common Marbled Carpet (5), Green Carpet (4), Brimstone Moth (3), Convolvulus Hawk-moth (1), Archer's Dart (1), Turnip Moth (1), Dark Sword-grass (1), Large Yellow Underwing (6), Lesser Yellow Underwing (2), Autumnal Rustic (16), Pearly Underwing (1), Setaceous Hebrew Character (52), Neglected Rustic (1), Square-spot Rustic (16), Common Wainscot (7), L-album Wainscot (5), Black Rustic (51), Green-brindled Crescent (29), Large Ranunculus (1), Feathered Ranunculus (2), Brick (1), Red-line Quaker (7), Yellow-line Quaker (1), Flounced Chestnut (4), Beaded Chestnut (5), Lunar Underwing (26), Orange Sallow (1), Pink-barred Sallow (4), Sallow (2), Dark/Grey Dagger (1), Angle Shades (10), Rosy Rustic (6), Frosted Orange (2), Large Wainscot (4), Small Mottled Willow (1), Pale Mottled Willow (2), Ni Moth (1), Silver Y (3) & Snout (3).

Bonxie on Swansea's filthy west pier

A very confiding Great Skua was looking for scraps on the pier this morning providing great photo opportunities with the Meridian Tower behind. We had a very nice cup of hot chocolate in the Grape and Olive at the top of the building afterwards and can definitely recommend it; stunning views and we managed to tick off the skua from there too! Some friendly Turnstones were also present feeding on left over bait. I have to say the mess left on the pier by fishermen was a disgrace, not just the usual discarded line and hooks everywhere, but cans and litter left scattered. I wont go into details about the foul smell engulfing the end of the pier - perhaps that's what attracted the Bonxie in the first place!

Bonxie is the Shetland name for Great Skua and is commonly adopted by birdwatchers. It is believed to be of Scandinavian origin derived from bunke meaning 'dumpy body'.

a bird free day 30th september

High tide was nice in the Burry but no birds of interest to photograph and a trip to Oxwich hide found a man with a machine working in front of the hide so.......... turn of attention to insects on the Ivy blossom. Lots to see including:

Mellinus arvensis decapitating a fly prior to carrying it back to the burrow, they don't always do this according to photographs, maybe this was a feisty fly!

a better view of the Mellinus.

My first Colletes hederae! A check later at Port Eynon also found them there so they are likely to be widespread now? Anyone else seen them yet? Day wasn't totally bird free. This Goldfinch, feeding on Evening Primrose seed was so confiding it got a face full of flash and my 100mm macro!