Hoopoe in Middleton

(c) Gordon Howe

The above image was taken by Gordon Howe out of the dining room window. This bird was first seen by Gordon and Beryl's son Jem two days earlier in the lane alongside the Nitten Field (SS423875) and despite brief appearances elsewhere, including Barrie & Maragaret Swinnerton's garden, seems to favour the area in and around Nitten.

(c) Alun John
bird on track alongside Nitten early aftenoon

This is the 13th Hoopoe to be found in Glamorgan since 2000, the distribution of records shown by the larger red dots (2013 centred black) on the map below, smaller dots showing pre-2000 records. The map reveals that these bird have turned up at seemingly random sites all along the coastal lowlands, with April being the peak month.

Gower-bred Kite doing well

(c) P. Copner

Paul Copner photographed this immature Red Kite on 27/03/13 in a field just west of Landimore, feeding on what Paul thought looked like sheep's afterbirth. Gwyn Roberts informed us this is a Gower bred bird, now in it's second calendar year. [NB. This is one of the birds reported by Mark in January, see here Tagged Red Kites.]

Waxwings

c12 Waxwings flying and calling today near Penrice.

Butcher Bird

A Great Grey Shrike showed well yesterday in a clear felled area near Crynant, but not today. Rob Jones and I watched it catch at least 4 Common Lizards and this unfortunate Shrew.

It was interesting to watch the Shrike first take the Shrew to a dead tree, where it killed it and impaled it on the jagged edge of a snapped branch. It didn't leave the Shrew there however, instead taking it down to a lower level 'larder.' A fallen Spruce with a short branch, splayed at the end, making for an ideal place to peg out the Shrew for consumption later on. With the puncture already in place the Shrike was able to position its kill at the lower level very quickly before flying off and, presumably, in doing so lessening the chances of losing it later on to an opportunistic scavenger.

Having just left the Shrew the Shrike flew to a distant dead tree where it very quickly afterwards, dropped to the ground to catch a Common Lizard, which it killed and ate immediately.

a few more insects

Things are slowly starting up anywhere the sun gets to and the wind doesn't. Under the awning to the national Pool the Anthophora plumipes males are patrolling but hopefully there are no females about yet as the currant bushes are not yet in flower on the allotments nor is whatever else they use, just a few dandelions.

There was also one Lasioglossum morio female on dandelion:

The females occur alone at this time of the year nesting in bare ground and the males emerge later. They are thought to be primitively eusocial i.e. with workers the same as the queens. The head and thorax is more metallic bronzy green than this flash photo shows, the males are altogether more metallic green. Beware there are other species of metallic green Lasioglossum, I have recorded smeanthellum from gower. I have also recorded the small Andrena minutula from this site so the wings need checking carefully although it is not metallic.
In the university I found my first Platycheirus albinanus of the year, a female. This very common hoverfly has pairs of grey spots on the abdomen in the female but again beware as there are other species less common.

Last week I was at Oxwich one day and noticed the Dwarf Willow was not yet in flower in the dune slacks. When it is there will be many Colletes cunicularius feeding on the flowers and nesting on the sandy dune slopes. As you can see they look a bit like small bumble or honey bees:

but if you check the wing you will see a bend where marked with a V which goes towards the tip of the wing, a characteristic of Colletes bees.

This bee is nationally quite scarce, I (and others) have found it on most of the gower dune systems but I have put it up becuase it is supposed to be spreading north and away from the coasts so might be worth keeping an eye out for inland.

If the warm weather promised for next week doesn't bring too much rain we might actually be able to get this spring under way, good luck.

Colour-ringed Sandwich Tern

Rein Part sent me some images of Sandwich Terns at Whiteford Point taken yesterday, including one that was colour-ringed. Unfortunately the code can't be read clearly, so on the off-chance these birds stick around it would be very useful if someone could record the ring details.

Other spring migrants worth looking out for at present are Wheatears, which seem in good supply; Ring Ouzels, seen at four site on or near the coast in the last week or so; and of course Sand Martins and Chiffchaffs, with a good selection of scattered records of these early returners. Hopefully as the weather warms up we'll see a much bigger influx. For first arrival dates in East and West Glamorgan check out this LINK

Cwmdulais river mosses

The acidic water flowing down the Afon Dulais above Pontarddulais supports a limited but distinctive suite of species, two of the most abundant being Alpine Water-moss (Fontinalis squamosa) and Claw Brook-moss (Hygrohypnum ochraceum). These dark aquatic species grow on in-stream rocks and boulders forming part of characteristic community.

Alpine Water-moss (Fontinalis squamosa)

Claw Brook-moss (Hygrohypnum ochraceum)

Flushed pastures alongside the river that aren't covered in Rhododendron are more diverse with noteworthy species including locally frequent Whorled Caraway (Carum verticillatum) , Round-leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus omiophyllus), Ivy-leaved Bellflower (Wahlenbergia hederacea) and the luxuriant foliage of Marsh Forklet-moss (Dichodontium palustre).

Whorled Caraway leaves growing overGrove Earwort (Scapania nemorea)

Marsh Forklet-moss (Dichodontium palustre)