Ginger badger

On the way back from a daytrip to Slimbridge this evening, we followed a ‘ginger’ badger down the minor road from Nantmel to Doldowlod. Very light colour with a hint of orange / ginger. I remember seeing a similar coloured individual dead on the A44 in Nantmel (about a mile away) a few years ago – checking the archives on this blog it was in March 2010.

Weasel

Saw a weasel running in and out of a hedge by our gate early yesterday morning, 1 December.

Nantmel Tip on sunday

We had a successful time at the old Nantmel Tip site on sunday. Three moth traps and lots of mammal traps were set the eveing before and the group set about emptying these whilst some wandered around sweeping for other species.

The site covers a large area and consists of drier sedge covered expanses, a small choked up pond and a marshy area full of meadowsweet, hogweed and angelica. The site also borders more mature  boggy woodland. The final count for moths was 108, caught in 3 traps – including an Old Lady, Gothic, Beautiful hook-tipped and Double Lobed.

Double lobed

In addition to the larger moths a miniscule orange coloured micro-moth Agonopterix conterminella proved to be a first Radnorshire record. Sorcha managed to catch a few Field voles, Common and Pygmy shrews, many plants were identified and birds included Green woodpecker, Whitethroat, Sedge warbler and Willow Tit. The invertebrate experts found some uncommon bugs including one that remained unidentified on the day and was taken away for analysis. A lovely yellow and black longhorn beetle proved to be a rarely seen Radnorshire specimen.

 

Butterflies and dragonflies were low in number (as seemingly has been the case elsewhere this year?) but we did record Red Admiral, Comma, Meadow Brown, Green veined and small white as well as Brown hawker and Emporer Dragonfly.

A common frog was the lone amphibian.

Hares

Sorcha Lewis reports 2 hares seen near Cae Melyn on the Llanwrthwl road from Elan Village yesterday (1/7) and today 1 hare seen in Elan Village at 19.30hrs. Never seen a hare here.

Otter @ Gilfach

A large otter (male?) wandered down the Marteg near the railway bridge first thing yesterday. I watched from 50m away as it turned over stones. On the BTO Atlas tetrad I had around 40 species (see the Radnor bird blog), despite the weather. Also the bluebell woods on the the other side of the Wye from the Pont Marteg carpark is in full bloom and also full of Pied Flycatchers. The pastures along the footpath from the footbridge over the Wye also had several Small Copper and Small Heath butterflies and I saw a Hornet near Nannerth. The whole area is well worth a visit right now.

Bat

A bat, a pipistrelle I think, flew around the garden at lunchtime yesterday. After several attempts it finally managed to squeeze into a hole under the eaves of the house. Also a few tortoiseshell butterflies about in the sun yesterday. At Penrhos, llanwrthwl a pair of stonechat back on territory and a couple of chiffchaffs singing in Nantglas this morning. A large (queen?) bumblebee also appeared in the garden today. All signs of spring…..

Green Woodpeckers, toads et al

The green woodpeckers were in full voice around Craig Llyn this morning, and it was good to know they managed to survive the hard winter.
Unusually, the toads are in the ponds at the same time as the frogs this year and are even laying their ropes in the same place as the frog spawn. The populations look very healthy, and I am seeing greater numbers than I have ever known, still very active. There are lots of newts also.
The barn owl is vocal every night close to the house and the pipistrelles are becoming very active.
Reed buntings are daily visitors at the moment, 7 yesterday (12th March) and the yellowhammers also are here regularly, occasionally in larger number of 9 or more, but usually 2 or 3.
Spotted otter spreint near the big pond three days ago.

Bat

Saw a bat, probably a pipistrelle, flying around Llanwrthwl on January 2nd. Perhaps it had awoken during the thaw thinking it was spring! (It was 27 C warmer on our drive yesterday than Christmas day). Notice others have been seen elsewhere also. http://goweros.blogspot.com/

Latest from The Cwm

From Richard Knight

The 15 blackbirds, with the occasionl song thrush and mistle thrush, that have been feeding on the sloes by the house for the last 10 days have now stripped the lot and moved on.  Of the 15 only 2-3 were adult males and there were only 2 females the rest were all first winter males (born this year). This has made me wonder where the 1st year females are.

Yesterday morning down in our rhos pasture, deep in snow with the trees coated in a spectacular frost, two female reed buntings were picking seeds from the purple moor grass.  We don’t often see reed buntings at this time of year  -  usually late February to October is reed bunting time with a pair nesting in the rhos each year.  At seed, crushed nuts, wheat, fat, porridge oats, sunflower hearts and table crumbs, put out daily the usual complement has been :- 12-15 each of blue and great tits, 2-4 coal tits, 2 marsh tits, 30 chaffinches, 4 robins, 4-5 dunnocks, 2 nuthatches, 3 g. s. woodpeckers and occasionally 2 carrion crows.  The jays that were with us all summer long deserted us as the acorns started to fall and haven’t felt the need to take advantage of the food put out even in this freezing weather.  There are plenty of acorns under the oaks still so I guess they are coping ok. Grey squirrels have been absent throughout the cold spell  – curled up in the warm
somewhere and badgers too have been sleeping through the worst of it.

Bats about

Two bats flying along the lane this evening, close to the ‘chicken farm’ at Llanerchfallen. A hare also near by last evening – it seemed to melt away into the hedge before loping off across the field.