Honey bee

I saw a honey bee with a black abdomen feeding on a daffodil at Manor House Wildlife Park this morning. Daffs are getting into full swing in time for St. Davids Day tomorrow.

Otters at Westfield Pill

2 Otters feeding by the crossing this morning. The one pictured was around for about 10 minutes despite seeing me when it first arrived. Also putting in an appearance was the Water Rail who also seemed to take no notice of my presence.

 

Regards,

 

John McIntosh

Flutter bye

Another one! I had a small tortoiseshell at the post office depot in Fishguard on Friday !

Small Tortoiseshell

1 awakened from  its hibernation today in St Ishmaels - a little sun works wonders for all of us!
Family in Hampshire reported a Red Admiral in their garden a couple of weeks back.
What with that and sightings of Sand Martins and Wheatear on the south coast this week - spring may just be on the way.

Skokholm 2011

We are winding up for the 2011 season on Skokholm and have a load of stuff to get over to the island in the period mid March to mid April and then again in the summer with work parties through August and into september.

We would love to hear from people willing to help with the deliveries - a boat trip and a bit of physical stuff. Then anyone who is interested in helping with the refurbishment work in the autumn - ideally those with some building/DIY skills. Good time for migrants in August and September!!

Anyone interested please contact Steve Sutcliffe on 01646 636754 or John Walmsley on 01646 636995.

Thanks

Eagle

A very large dark eagle like bird was seen this afternoon over the southern end of Withybush Airfield. It then flew S/W over ridgeway.

Good Otter viewings on Teifi

Good view from viewing platform by the river (down from the Visitor CEntre) of a pair of otter having a squabble or something. Looked like a male telling a young male where he can go and fish (not on my patch).

Chris

Eagle

An eagle has been spotted flying south across the A40 from the Wiston area today at 11.15am.

Low tide Martins Haven

The extreme low tide exposed the kelp bed and we found lots of interesting marine life under the boulders. This included a brittle star, cling fish that stuck to our hands using their sucker, lots of porcelain crabs and hairy crabs which have huge claws that are different sizes.

There was also a seal pup and mum on the beach with their dad, a bull seal, patrolling close to the shoreline in the water.

Teilo and Iori Davies

Westfield Pill Sat 19th Feb

WESTFIELD PILL
Today at 2pm just below the lower bridge at bottom of reserve, two
otters seen fishing and quite undisturbed by a small group of six
people watching. I am asuming they were a breeding pair as one looked
larger with  a broader head ( i take this to be the dog). Both otters
caught smallish fish and took on the bank to eat. will try to download
photo but it is not of good quality. Also two pair of herons apear to
be nesting on the far bank of the reserve. Otherwise the usual species
amounting to 31 in total.
regards
Barry Potter

Golden Eagle at Wiston

Just had a phone call from Phillipa Parlor who lives at Wiston as follows:

"I was just watching the two regular Red Kites hunting and chasing each other over the meadow behind the house. One of the kites caught something quite large - about rat sized - when suddenly a HUGE bird appeared from nowhere, mugged the Red Kite, caught the rat in mid-air then flew off. It must have been a Golden Eagle as it was so much bigger than the kites."

Rosemary

Bits and bobs...

It's been a while since I last posted (busy busy!) but my first treecreeper of the year at Stackpole has been the first sighting of note for a while. Spotted on the lower section of the walk at Stackpole court. Nice to see plenty of snowdrops breaking through as well. Also, last week an otter was swimming in plain view near the boathouse at Stackpole. I'm not confidently able to say whether it was male/female or cub/adult; but a fairly educated guess would be a young male. Lots of Fulmars off Barafundle last week and a slow worm near my house in lower Pennar were the main wildlife sightings worth reporting. Plenty of the red variant of orange peel fungus around the Stackpole estate - is that the right description?? The recently felled trees at Stackpole also have some great specimens of bracket fungi that I recommend checking out before they're removed.

Otter dispersal at Bosherston

I came across this otter at about 08:30 this morning in the central lake at Bosherston, very close in to the Grassy Bridge. I had also seen this (or another) animal in the western arm (near the limestone outcrop) about twenty minutes earlier.

This is the third time I have seen an otter in the central lake this week. This contrasts markedly with my sightings in 2010, when I saw otters at Bosherston on 74 dates (one of the benefits of having a dog to walk), but never once outside the eastern arm - and invariably within c.200m of the Eight-arch Bridge.

On Monday, an otter was seen near the Eight-arch Bridge at about the same time that I was watching one in the central lake. This suggests that at least two of the 'daylight-feeding' family of 2009/10 are still present (if not all three), but now occupying different sections of the lake system and living independently of each other. Interestingly, the window frames of the boathouse seem to be a favoured sprainting site for one animal, which suggests that if you sit there long enough....

Westfield Pill

At 8a.m.this morning, a female Otter taking a fish (Rudd), to its cub.Two others, possibly last years young swimming nearby. A very confiding Water Rail, Firecrest, Mandarin and Redpoll, rounded off a good pre-breakfast walk.

Allan.

Invitation to school teachers

I have set up a blog for Pembrokeshire Wildlife that I think can be an excellent resource for schools in Pembrokeshire. This is a website for the general wildlife sightings, discussion, comments, questions and observations and has been unblocked and passed for school use by Duncan Whitehurst (ICT Advisory Teacher for Pembrokeshire). "Authors” invited by myself are able to post on the blog. It is envisaged that only teachers will have this ability to ensure that content is controlled for quality and child security.

 

The vision is to utilise the knowledge possessed by wildlife professionals and expert amateurs as a source of local information for teachers and pupils. This also benefits the experts as more people observing wildlife means that more knowledge can be gained. For example, phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate. Recording sightings of the first appearance of plants and animals during the seasons is valuable information for wildlife professionals who are monitoring the affects of climate change.

 

The hope is that we can enthuse children and teachers to explore and utilise their local environment with the help of wildlife experts in Pembrokeshire. For example, teachers could encourage their pupils to search for wildlife on the weekend, to photograph it if possible and to identify it i.e. to become a “Nature Detective”. This results in a number of skills being developed such as observation and the ability to use an identification guide. The resulting material could be utilised in a number of ways e.g in art, science, history, numeracy etc. The teacher can then make a post of the pupil’s work to share with others. The existing Eco-Schools project could make us of this resource and contribute to it.

 

I am currently recruiting wildlife experts to provide multi-media content (text, images and video can be uploaded) so you will find high quality imagery and content to use in your lessons. Please get in touch with me with any requests and comments.  I suggest that the site can be accessed by your school’s admin email plus a password. I will send an invite to become an author once you request this.

Big tide on Sunday 20th

One of biggest spring tides of the year will occur on Sunday 20th. Low tide at 0.08m is 13.53 and will give a great opportunity to explore the lower shore for plants and animals that normally spend their lives immersed in sea water. Don't forget to take your camera with you and post your findings here!

Frog mating frenzy!

We had quite a weekend frenzy of mating activity in our garden pond in Solva. We counted 35 frogs at one point all croaking and splashing and trying to compete for females. There were several mating pairs which has resulted in masses of frog spawn. The male clasps the female with his front legs and sprays the eggs with sperm to fertilize them as the female lays them. It's been such a pleasure to sit quietly at the pond edge watching their antics and we've been able to get some great images. I would really recommend to anyone with a garden to dig a wildlife pond- it's the absolute highlight of our garden!

The Bittern picture

Thanks Andy for giving the pic (or a horizontal slice through it!) the honour of the header pic for the blog. As most will know there have been up to 3 Bitterns at Bosherston this winter largely as a result of the extremely cold weather pushing them from further east. On Saturday I went looking for one (combined with a dog walk with my daughter) and this bird was located (by Morris North) in the small reedbed at the southern end of the lakes above the beach. It was only 10 feet or so into the reeds, which themselves are only 10 feet or so from the path, so it was close! It was, however, very difficult to pick out amongst the reeds, but once I got the 'scope on it, the views were fantastic - it was a delight to show the bird to a number of passers-by who were out enjoying the sunshine. Luckily the bird stayed absoutely still, assuming we couldn't see it, bill pointing skywards, and I was able to take a series of pics using a Samsung NV3 (a little point and shoot camera) handheld up to my 'scope eyepiece (which was zoomed out to 20x magnification). The camera has a 3x optical zoom, which you more or less have to zoom up to, to avoid vignetting (i.e. looking like it was taken in a tunnel). Basically, I just got lucky that the bird stood as still as a statue, as 'digiscoping' is impossible with a moving target. Two original pics included here.

Amazing photograph of bittern

Many thanks to Dave Astins for providing the new photograph for the blog. An extraordinary view of a very shy bird. Could you give us the story of how you managed to take it?

Seal pup on Martin's Haven beach: PLEASE do not disturb

Martin's Haven has a new-born seal pup on the beach, with the mother and a bull in the bay. This morning many visitors were coming right onto the beach, and the mother appeared to be quite distressed at being unable to get back to the pup. It would be greatly appreciated if people could keep dogs on a lead and off the beach to avoid causing any more stress to the mother and pup.

Frog spawn

We had our first frog spawn of the year in Solva yesterday and another clump again this morning.

Otter at Bosherston

An Otter was fishing in the central arm of the lake system this morning, near the bank opposite Grassy Bridge. The large size of the animal suggested that it was an adult and very probably a dog Otter.

In general, Otter sightings have been relatively scarce at Bosherston since the lakes froze again in January, with most other sightings in the eastern arm (between Eight-arch Bridge and Grassy Bridge).

MCS Sea Champions Event

Information About Sea Champions

We know that quite often people would like to get more involved with the work of MCS but may only have limited time to help.  As a Sea Champion you decide how much time you can offer us and what activities will fit your lifestyle.

Local people have local knowledge -  your role as a  Sea Champion will be to help raise awareness of marine conservation issues close to home and show locals how  they can make a difference.    This can be done in  numerous and creative ways:

·         If you only have  a few minutes to spare  and would like to promote  MCS then put up posters up in your workplace and direct  interested people to our website to find out more

·         Identify local organisations and groups that might want to organise their own beach cleans and perhaps give a talk  

·         Work  with the local community to find  ways to become a plastic bag free village or town

·         Ask  people to log sightings on our website of  basking sharks, marine turtles and jellyfish and encourage  divers to get involved with our SeaSearch project.

·         Persuade people to log onto our Your Seas Your Voice website and vote for,  or suggest sites that need special marine protection

·         Get involved in fundraising for MCS by  running your own events, persuading others to get involved with current MCS fundraising events or just helping others to organise one.

·         Start your own  local group with the support of MCS

It is really up to you how you want to develop the role using your local knowledge to engage your community in the work of the  Marine Conservation Society.

At the Action Days, Welsh Officer, Gill Bell,  and  Biodiversity Stakeholder Engagement Officer,  Sue Ranger, will talk about the work of MCS  in Wales and the issues and threats to Welsh Marine Life. They will  give you ideas in the ways in which you can get involved and the support we can offer you in your role as a Sea Champion.  If at the end of the session you feel you would like to sign up then we can give you some great materials to get you started.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or Gill Bell, Welsh Officer gill.bell@mcsuk.org should you have any further questions.

Date

Sunday 13th February 2011

Time

 

Doors open at 12pm, programme starts at 12.15pm

Location

Picton Community Centre

Freeman’s Way

Haverfordwest

SA61 1UG

Picton Community Centre is located just off A4076 Freeman Way, turn off the A4076 into the Pembrokeshire Council Offices entrance and then turn left into the Picton Community Centre carpark.

Amorous frogs!

We've noticed adult frogs stirring in our garden pond in Solva over the last week and today I spotted a pair together in the mating hug! A bit earlier than previous years...

Life and death?

I spotted a buzzard hanging on the wind over the hedge alongside the main A road from Haverford to Milford this afternoon whilst driving in the car. We then passed a lapwing walking along the white line in the centre of the road with busy traffic on either side. It was obviously the centre of the buzzard's focus!

Wind blown Kittiwakes

Walking from Port Clais to Porthlisky today Tom and I saw several Kittiwakes straining to fly against the wind. When we got to Porthlisky bay there was a raft of 20+ Kittiwakes on the water. I guess they were resting from the howling wind.

Red kite

We saw a red kite this morning at Tavern Putt crossroads on the way to school.

Teilo and Iori Davies