Spring is Coming
A Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) this lunctime in Treforest gets the prize as the first butterlfy of the new year.
Good numbers of daffodils are emerging, and bird song fills the air each morning. Spring is on its way!
rhondda wildlife diary |
recording nature in the valleys |
A Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) this lunctime in Treforest gets the prize as the first butterlfy of the new year.
Good numbers of daffodils are emerging, and bird song fills the air each morning. Spring is on its way!
There are two heronries in the Rhondda Valleys. On this morning's daily commute, I spotted that birds have now returned to one of these sites for the first time this year. This is the earliest arrival date I've noted thus far. Seven birds were present. It is one of the smaller heronries in the region (8 in East Glamorgan) with just 6-8 nests producing offspring each year.
Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea) of course, despite their large size, and somewhat ungainly posture, nest in trees. Both our heronries are situated in two of the many conifer plantations we have. One is somewhat isolated, while the other is easily spotted from the roadside, or indeed passing trains.
The species is not uncommon in the Rhondda, and birds may often be seen commuting above the rivers, often harassed by the local bird population who may mistake them for raptors. Grey Herons can and do eat birds of course, as this unfortunate Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) found out. Herons can often be seen stalking prey along the rivers, but also in our lakes at Clydach Vale and elsewhere. I've seen up to 7 individuals at a time, sitting in the pine trees above the lake at Glyncornel. More unusually, I've encountered birds on football fields, perhaps attempting to fed on earthworms brought to the surface by rain.
Grey Heron Nest by Bill Allen1, on Flickr
I've been seeing Goosanders (Mergus merganser) regularly on the daily commute down the valley by train since October. Again today, a pair were flying high, speeding up the valley above the river. I've often seen pairs, but its not uncommon to see 6 or 7 together. I guess its a tribute to the cleaning of our rivers that this species is now common place here in winter.
Goosanders by TylerIngram, on Flickr
This appearance each winter is an interesting phenomenon. Of course, many of the UKs wildfowl arrive in large numbers in winter, but Goosanders are a little different. The males disappear each summer, leaving the females behind to raise a brood and moult. For years, it was a mystery where the males went. We now know that much of the European population of males Goosanders visit a few fjords in Finnmark, northern Norway, each summer. They spend their time here in moult, and return south to the UK as the waters freeze.
I've written before about the poor number of birds that visit our garden. The recent cold and snow spells however, have changed things. No doubt, as the snow fell, birds needed to seek out food wherever they could find, and finally stumbled across the food we put out. We now have a daily stream of visitors, including a few new garden ticks.
Goldfinches are interesting. I've watched them for a few years, feeding in a nearby garden, but they have never ventured from there. They've now discovered our Nyger feeder and are more or less present all day in our garden now. Six at first, but we now have ten each day. One day they were briefly joined by their close relatives, Lesser Redpoll. As well as feeding on the Nyger, the Goldfinches also spend time on the Teasels, Purple Loosestrife and Knapweed that did so well in attracting insects to the garden earlier in the year.
Our garden bird list this winter is:
Robin (Erithacus rubecula); Dunnock (Prunella modularis); Blackbird (Turdus merula); Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos); Magpie (Pica pica); Starling (Sturnus vulgaris); Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii); Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes); Great Tit (Parus major); Blue Tit (Cyanistes caerulus); Coal Tit (Periparus ater); Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs); Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis); Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) and House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).
Over the last few weeks a few very large slugs have appeared in the garden. Possibly even larger than the Large Black Slug (Arion ater) reported earlier. One of the two individuals here, was 15cm in length.
Like it's cousin, this too has a number of common names - Great Slug, Great Grey Slug, but its Leopard Slug (Limax maximus) that seems to fit the bill best, and certainly for the forms that appear in my garden.
This species however, is perhaps best known for its fascinating mating habits, illustrated here with commentary from David Attenborough.
More about Leopard Slugs may be read on the Living World of Molluscs.
Today's warm summer-like afternoon was certainly welcomed by the butterflies that are still on the wing. Two Commas (Polygonia c-album) and a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) spent much of the day nectaring on a few late flowering plants around the garden - Verbena bonariensis, Ice Plant (Sedum spectabilie), Bowles' Mauve Wallflower and Michaelmas Daisy 'frickartii munch'.
I was particularly struck by the Red Admiral. It is possibly the freshest individual I have ever seen, and struck me as being a little larger, but that may be an illusion. The Commas are strikingly different, with the smaller-winged individual likely to be a female.
It is worth noting that Red Admirals are a migratory species arriving in the UK from southern Europe in waves from spring onwards. And now at this time of year, they are on their southward migration to warmer climes. Think, that this individual in a few weeks time, may be enjoying the Spanish sunshine. Further evidence of this migration, was noted at Cwm Nash this afternoon. At least 15 Red Admirals were found nectaring on the abundant ivy blossom and a further 2 were seen coming in off the sea.
Commas in contrast, are able to hibernate in the UK and these garden visitors may well be fattening up in preparation for the winter ahead probably spent in a woodland tree trunk or fallen log. Unlike many of our species, Commas are bucking the trend and are actually expanding across the UK. They are certainly nice to see at anytime.
This spring I planted a number of native, insect-friendly plants, including Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis), Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Ice Plant (Sedum spectabile), Verbena bonariensis, Bowles Mauve Wallfloer, Michaelmas Daisy 'frickartii munch', Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber), Red Campion (Silene dioica) and Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria).
Most of these plants have taken very well, and the number of bees and hoverflies around the garden has certainly increased. I have also recorded my first garden catch of The Campion (Hadena rivularis). Late summer however, has been a real treat and a number of butterflies have spent a lot of time enjoying the remaining flowering plants.
An interesting Comma (Polygonia c-album) visited today. A very distinctive shiny silver mark was on its upper right wing. It gave the impression of being a deliberate mark or 'wing-tag'. On closer inspection of the images it appears that a number of scales have been dislodged (perhaps during emergence) revealing the wing's shiny membrane. A shot of the underwing also reveals the prominenet mark from which the species takes its name.
A Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae), though familiar, was nice to capture images of.
This morning I got up early to track down a Little Owl (Athene noctua) that had been found earlier in the week in Penrhiwfer.
Though I've seen Little Owls many times in Norfolk and abroad, I've only seen the species on just a few occasions in Glamorgan and never in the Rhondda. This one was just the wrong side of the River Ely, but I won't hold that against it.
I met up with the finder at 6:00am and we quietly made our way to the location, around some old disused out-buildings adjacent some rough ground. Classic Little Owl territory. Sure enough just as the light began to break the darkness we saw the silhouette of the bird at the top of a telegraph pole. For the next half-an-hour or so, the bird was spotted flitting to-and-fro between several perches around the building and the adjoining land. No doubt it was feeding up before returning to roost.
A delight to see, and I shall be making a few return visits in the hope that it will stay and set up territory here.
Little Owl (Athene noctua) by fionaandneil, on Flickr
While driving along the A4119 between Williamstown and Tonyrefail on 1 September at 8:15pm I was struck by the number of large bats hawking over the road and along the woodland edges either side. At the same time on 3 September, I again observed over a dozen individuals in the same spot.
Given their large size, I was pretty sure these were Noctules (Nyctalus noctula).
Last night, I decided to take another look, but this time I took a bat detector to see if I could get some sound passes. Sure enough, at 8:00pm there were a number of bats on the wing as I drove along and pulled over in the parking lay-by.
One individual passed to and fro' five times, seemingly patrolling a length of the road of about a 100m. The bat detector picked up a strong stream of sound at 28kHz, typical of noctules. I was taken by the fact that this particular individual seemed intent on just hawking up and down the road, and occasionally diverting to the overhanging trees.
Noctules roost in mature trees, which are in abundance either side of the road at this site.
The drive back home saw at least another dozen individual bats.
Using Web 2.0 to record wildlife seen in and around the Rhondda Valleys, south Wales.
