Day 10 - The Mute Swan - 30 Days Wild 2017

Day 10: Star Species

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

Today we popped down to one of our local man-made lakes in Swansea - Fendrod. I had a bag of swan and duck feed in the car so thought I would see what waterfowl was there. There was quite a selection of breeds; mallard, coots, sparrows, swallows and a lot of mute swans.

What magnificent birds there are. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't see any cygnets. Last year there were quite a few little ones, including a few hitching a lift on mum's back...

Cygnets on the back of mum last year on Fendrod Lake

More about them - Mute swans are a familiar and impressive sight in Britain, often found on ponds and rivers in parks and other urban areas.

The mute swan is one of Britain's largest and heaviest waterbirds. Mostly white with a long S-shaped neck, and an orange bill. They have a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres, which can be intimidating when the males are threatened by intruders and protect their territory. They strike an aggressive pose with wings arched over they back, before charging at them and chasing them off.

The population in the UK has increased recently, perhaps due to better protection of this species. Locally there were a regular pair of swans that breed every year on the banks of the canal. Unfortunately, something happened this year and the pair vacated the nest whilst there were eggs there. No one really knew what had happened and it's sad we will not see cygnets on the canal this year. Below are some pictures of them from last year...

Interesting Facts:

• Throughout history, the Swan has been featured in many Russian ballets and fairy tales including Swan Lake and The Ugly Duckling.
• By tradition, all mute swans belong to the monarch; the Queen has a prerogative over all swans in England and Wales. 
• Aristotle and Socrates believed that swans singing was heightened as death approaches, giving rise to the idea of the swan song.

Day 3 -The Spoonbill - 30 Days Wild 2017

Day 3: Star Species

Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)

For the last few weeks there have been numerous sightings of Spoonbills in my local Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Llanelli. Infact at one point there were 4 - making it a centre record. The Spoonbill is very uncommon and I was lucky to spot a few on my Day 3 of 30 Days Wild: making it my Star Species of the day!

More about them - This species is almost unmistakable to identify. Almost as big as a heron, these tall white birds have long black legs and an impressive long spatulate bill. The adults have a black bill with a yellow tips, whilst the juvenile has more of a pink coloured bill.

They feed in an elegant way, sweeping their bills back and fro in the water for food. Their diet consists of mainly aquatic insects, newts, frogs, tadpoles, crustaceans and small fish. Check out the below video of a juvenile and adult spoonbill searching for food (check out the colour of their bills.)

The spoonbill is a regular but scarce bird in the UK. They were once hunted so heavily that they were virtually wiped out of Britain.  Numbers are increasing though, in 2005, there were under 20 of them but in 2016, their numbers have grown to over 60. 

This is a juvenile spoonbill with a few black headed gulls & lapwings

Amazing spoon-like bills!

Interesting Facts:

• The latin name: Platalea means 'broad' referring to the shape of the bill. Leukos 'white' and erodias 'heron' - Broad white heron.
• In October 2014 - A rare sighting of the largest flock of Spoonbills ever seen in Britain was recorded. 47 birds were sighted at Brownsea Island Lagoon in Dorset. 

Day 28 - 30 Days Wild - Pond dipping

* Today's random act of wildness - Pond dipping *

Day 28 and what horrid weather - it had rained almost all day! Finally at around 7.30pm the sun began to come up so we decided to go to Penllergare Valley Woods, a local woodland to see if there was any activity in the small pond there. Earlier in the year when we visited there were lots of tadpoles, so hopefully we would see some frogs or toads.

This is what we discovered...

The small pond full of lilies

A young toad in the grass

Young frog with water boatman 

Damsel Nymph

Newt Larvae - you can tell it's a newt tadpole because of the feathery gills around the head, distinguishing them from frog and toad tadpoles.

An adult newt, the water was too murky to tell if it was Palmate or smooth (definitely not great crested)

Another newt larvae

Young frog...

...this one still had it's tail

A huge dragonfly nymph

The sun starts setting and we decided it was time to leave.

Wildling enjoying climbing trees!

Day 27 - 30 Days Wild - Foxes in the churchyard...

* Today's random act of wildness - Exploring a churchyard *

Day 27 of 30 Days Wild - oh no, only 3 days left after today :(

In South Wales there are many graveyards and sadly many of them are neglected and over run with foliage. With so many plants and grass left to grow unattended there is no doubt that these sacred grounds must be teeming with nature.

I asked a few local people on Facebook which ones they felt were worth visiting for wildlife and I had a long list back, which was quite sad really that these once beautiful maintained areas are now left to the elements.

After work we went to the graveyard on Carmarthen Rd, Swansea to see what we could see. Unfortunately we couldn't access the place - it was so overgrown we couldn't see the paths for the graves - so we decided to leave this one.

A graveyard on Carmarthen Road, Swansea - not accessible due to the overgrown foliage

Gravestone lost under the brambles

Next stop was a church about 10 minutes drive away where the graveyard was full of bramble, balsam and other creeping plants. It was hard to see some of the gravestones due to the ivy, but there were indeed an array of insects. Many wildflowers were growing among the graves including clover, vetch & daisies - which brought the bees, wasps and butterflies. Here are some of the insects and flowers we found...

Purple Vetch

Clover

Bee on Yellow Vetch

Large Bee on nettle 

Insect needs IDing

Ringlet Butterfly

Micro Moth

The time was about 6.30pm when we reached the middle of the graveyard and we noticed a flash of orange through the long grass - as we got nearer we realised there was a beautiful red fox there just chilling out. We were very quiet and managed to get a few photos including a big yawn, we must have stood there for about 30 seconds until it spotted us and then it was gone. What a treat!

Red Fox just chilling out.

Big yawn!

The undergrowth began to get a lot thicker and harder to navigate so we made our way back to the car and drove home. In the evening I finished my kingfisher painting and was over whelmed by the response on Facebook when I posted it on there - over 450 likes is mind blowing and made me realise that perhaps I should have more confidence in my work and maybe consider selling them :)

My watercolour of a kingfisher - June 2016

Day 9 - 30 Days Wild - Attracting Moths

* Today's random act of wildness - Attracting Moths *

Seeing I saw a few moths in the garden recently I decided to look on the internet for ways to attract moths in the garden. I found a great recipe for moth syrup on the Wildlife Trust's website and decided tonight I shall give it a go. Click here to see the link yourself :) 

Cinnabar moth in the garden today

Mullein Moth caterpillar - tiny compared to my thumb but will grow quite a bit.

* Here is the Moth Syrup recipe *

You will need:

• A bottle of red wine
• 1 kg Sugar
• Some cloth cut in strips
• Wooden Spoon
• Saucepan

*Note - I halved the recipe *

The ingredients

Step 1 - Pour wine into saucepan

Step 2 - Add the sugar

Step 3 - Stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Take off heat and cool.

Step 4 - Now add the cloth to the wine/sugar mix

Step 5 - Next take the cloth out of the saucepan

Step 6 - Last step hang the strips up in the garden. I have put it on the rotary line,
but you could put them on trees, fences etc...

Now all I have to do is wait until it gets dark to see what turns up...watch this space...

* 2 hour update *

After two hours and when it was dark we went to check on the strips, unfortunately we didn't get any moth's on them, but there was a few small ones flying around. After another half an hour we moved them to the fence at the bottom of the garden where there's a few trees. Again, nothing so we decided to give up on moths tonight...perhaps there was too much of a breeze in the air? Nevertheless we went exploring and came across these critters, including a rather large stone spider...

Centipede

House Spider

A lovely patterned slug

Stone spider enjoying some of the moth syrup that had run down the fence.

Day 8 - 30 Days Wild - World Ocean Day

* Today's random act of wildness - A walk along the beach *

Today is World Ocean Day so what better way than go to my local beach. Just a mile away is Aberavon beach, so we decided to go for a walk and see what had been washed up with the tide.

The sun was starting to set 

Dead Dogfish :(

Jellyfish

A tiny jellyfish

Pretty shell

Red Scallop Shell

Some sort sea cucumber? Do you know what it is?

Bladderwrack Seaweed

A hairy Sea Potato (also known as sea urchin)...

...and a not so hairy one (there were lots on the beach that night)

Dunlin foraging as the tide was coming in

Close up of Dunlin

Common Ringed Plover 

Check out this bright yellow bird too! Time for an interesting story...

Apparently in January 1992 a crate full of 29,000 plastic ducks (and frogs etc...) fell off a container ship that was travelling across the Pacific from Hong Kong - Since then they have bobbed thousands of miles and some have even washed up on the shores of Hawaii and Alaska. Is this one of them?

Wildling enjoy the sunset

A beautiful sunset in honor of World Ocean Day ♥