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 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 24 - 30 Days Wild - A walk amongst the Swansea dunes

* Today's random act of wildness - exploring the dunes *

A few days ago I went looking for Bee orchids and found a lizard instead. I put this on Facebook and someone said they had seen some down in the Swansea dunes, so after work we decided to pop down and have a look...

Flowers on the dunes with Mumbles Lighthouse in the background

There are sandy pathways throw the dunes

We looked everywhere for the bee orchid, but whether they had already flowered we couldn't find any. However, there were lots of other different plants and flowers...

Evening Primrose

Pyramidal Orchid

More Pyramidal Orchid

Morning's Glory

Morning's Glory

Mushrooms in the sand

There wasn't just flowers on the dunes there were lots of insects around too including a large hawk moth (which was unfortunately dead, but still beautiful).

Strange bug

Eyed Hawk Moth

Eyed Hawk Moth

Even more flowers...

Some many flowers in bloom

Jupiter's Beard

Coastal Holly

Coastal Rose

Pyramidal Orchid

Common Marlow?

I saw these young birds too...

I think this is a juvenille Whitethroat

Juvenile meadow pipit?

Day 11 - 30 Days Wild - A trip to Crymlyn Bog, Swansea

* Today's random act of wildness - A meet up with my local Wildlife Trust group *

On Saturday 11 June, Dan and I met up with our local Wildlife Trust group (Swansea) to visit a local nature reserve - Crymlyn Bog, Swansea. It was a good turn out, about 20 people, and it was great walking around the reserve learning all about the plants and other wildlife that was there. Our guides were Wildlife Trust's Peter Hatherley & Tara Daniels, but we all helped each other identifying different things - all the people in the group were so friendly.

This is what we discovered...

flowers...

Southern Marsh Orchid

Marsh Lousewort (Thanks to Mark Barber for helping me ID it)

Common Cottongrass

Common Sundew

Marsh Cinqufoil

Ragged-Robin

Water Dropwort

The group walking along the boardwalks

insects...

Damselfly (needs Identifying)

Damselfly (needs Identifying)

Azure Damselfly

A funnel web created by the Labyrinth Spider

Beautiful jewel Dock Beetle

Dock Beetles mating

More Dock Beetles

Wolf Spider

Nettle Tap Moth (Thanks Dan Newton for helping my ID it)

Hoverfly

A species of Cranefly (?) mating

Sabre Wasp (correct me if I am wrong)

Broad Bodied Chaser Dragonfly (male)

Brown China-mark moth (Thanks Dan Newton for helping my ID it)

Some of the crowd exploring the reserve

birds...

A Song Thrush's egg - we found two on the floor, one was broken - who knows why they were there or what had stolen them from the nest.

Great Tit with it's dinner

It was a fantastic day out and even though the weather was a bit dull and grey we still managed to see lots and learn about all the different things we discovered. When everyone went home Dan and I decided to have one more walk around the reserve while things were quiet. It was starting to brighten up a bit and it was definitely getting warmer so we headed to the boardwalks where we had seen lizards before. 

Quietly we walked around and it wasn't long before the lizards started coming out - we saw three altogether and one was even growing a new tail, which I am never seen before.

This lizard must have lost it's tail and growing a brand new one

A common lizard 

Another common lizard

Here's Wildling helping me trying to ID some of the flowers!