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 23 - 30 Days Wild - An evening canal walk

* Today's random act of wildness - canal walk *

Day 23 we ventured down the canal which is only 10 minutes from where I live. The time was around 7pm so the light was fading a little. When we got there, there were lots of bull water lilies flowering and lots of insects around. Here's what we discovered on the small stretch of canal we walked...

The canal full of flowers

Wildling with the lilies in the background.

Brown china-mark moth

Some strange beetle that needs IDing

Tiny Froglet

Trying to help him off the pavement before he gets step on

Another insect that needs identifying

Common green grasshopper

Blue tailed damselfly

An immature blue tailed female damselfly

A large Mullein Moth

Two bugs mating (needs IDing)

More flowers on the canal bank

The canal on the left and the River Neath on the right

The sun started setting

Swallows on a cable

A cute duck on the canal bank

Day 22 - 30 Days Wild - Attracting moths - Take 2

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

On day 9 I tried to attract moths by making a wine and sugar syrup - unfortunately I didn't get much success. So tonight am going to try the old fashion sheet and torch experiment. I have set the sheet up and waiting until it gets a bit darker before setting a light on it.

The white sheet set up ready.

Here are some of the insects I found in the garden earlier today, including lots of tiny Cinnabar moths and a bug that his an alien face on his body!

This bug has an alien face! (need to ID)

Cinnabar caterpillars

They are very tiny at the moment

Lots of shield bugs in the garden

A slug and bug (need IDing)

A cocoon in the insect hotel

Grasshopper in the insect hotel

Stay tuned to see what I see in a few hours!!!

Day 21 - 30 Days Wild - Leaping lizards at lunchtime!

* Today's random act of wildness - Lunchtime river walk *

Day 21 - In work and going to an art exhibition tonight so managed to get out lunchtime with Dan and had a walk along the River Tawe. There was a specific spot I remember last year that was full of bee orchids so that's what we went looking for.

We started looking for the flowers and found alot of different insects along the way including the following...

Swollen Thighed Beetle (female)
Thanks to Paul Sergeant & Adele Price for helping me ID this 

Common Blue Butterfly

Ringlet Butterfly

Some small Aphid bug (needs IDing)

There were no sign of the orchids, but judging by the pic below (which is from my 2015 blog) I saw them on the 10th June last year - so I must have either left it too late or they haven't flowered yet. A bit disappointed because they are lovely to see, but the disappointment didn't last long when we stumbled across this gorgeous fellow...

Bee Orchid from last year

Leaping lizards! Look what we found on our lunch break...I have never seen these guys so near to Swansea City Centre, but they were just off the cycle path near quite a built up area. Such a pleasant surprise and  I wonder how many others there are?

Gorgeous lizard

Here's a closeup!

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, so a HUGE thank you to my other half Dan for helping me out with his camera.