A handful of images from the amazing encounter with today's visiting flock of 13 Bee-eaters to the Llyn. A surreal sight to see, drifting over the fields and lining the roadside wires! I hope they drift over many other places so more people can see them...
I stood in despair watching these four jet skis blast around the corner and plough straight through rafts of Razorbills, Guillemots and Puffins at
@RSPBCymru
South Stack today, just metres away from some of the main colonies on the cliffs. How on earth is this OK???
Made a rather wonderful companion whilst exploring the peaks of Arran today. Never had such a close encounter with a Raven. What immense beasts they are - a real privilege to share the hills with. You could hear ice crunching beneath its feet and every ruffle of its feathers 👌🏼⛰️
A rare glimpse of what the landscape could be when given a chance 🌳 amidst a sea of brown, deer-trimmed hills emerges the occasional oasis of regenerating Caledonian forest, fenced off and giving way to Scots Pine, Bilberry, Birch, Rowan, Oak and everything that follows...
Well I wasn’t expecting that. 13 BEE-EATERS over a neighbour’s house on the western slopes of Mynydd Rhiw! An utterly surreal sight and sound seeing these beauties lining the roadside wires and bee-catching over the silage fields!
#GlobalBigDay2020
When you're cycling back from a dip in the river and see this next to the road. Ecstatic is an understatement. The elusive Dyfi Beaver persists!
#Afanc
Great to start the Storm-petrel study season out in the Faroes. A handful of fluff balls in the nestboxes already, but most have hatched out in the last couple of days - really hoping we'll be able to deploy some
@pathtrackltd
GPS tags on the adults in the coming days!
Came across this and just had to share...Yr Afonydd o Cymru // an amazing map of
#wales
outlining catchment areas & river systems. The real veins of the country, and far more elegant than the road network!
@RobGMacfarlane
@RewildingB
One of those moments when you're glad of lugging your camera gear for over eight hours of mountain hiking...
A couple of images from the wonderfully special encounter with this Raven atop North Goatfell on Arran this week. Still buzzing.
#VitaminNature
The breathtaking sight of over 80 Choughs flocking together on Pen Llyn yesterday, with Ynys Enlli as a backdrop. It's really encouraging to see so many birds and fledglings around this year, after what seems to have been a good breeding season!
@cornishchoughs
@RSPBCymru
Not a scrap of news on today’s historic
#RestoreNatureNow
gathering in London on
@BBCNews
. Classic. Instead, one of top UK headlines includes ‘Fairground ride restored in 15 year labour of love’.
Some meaningful reporting would be brilliant…
No sign of the 13 Bee-eaters this morning after scouring the area by bike. It seems they may have moved on! Keep your eyes (and ears!) peeled on such a still and sunny day. Who knows where they will turn up next. Here's a shot from my last encounter with them...
Superb demonstration of
#NoMowMay
in our local cemetery in Aberdaron: just look at the Thrift!!! This is a green hay donor site for other Meadows around Llyn where restoration of species-rich grasslands is taking place. Absolutely buzzing with insects. 🌿🌼🐝
Welcome to this World little Storm-petrel. If you live to be one of the oldest of Stormies (33 yrs), I'll be over 60 when you're still fluttering over the wildest oceans on the planet. I really hope we can clean up this planetary mess for you in the meantime...
#StubbornOptimism
For those not keen on Ivy...LOOK AT THOSE INSECTS!!! Flowering patches of Ivy are utterly heaving with invertebrate life right now, from Marmalade Hoverflies to magnificent Red Admirals. The sound (and smell!) is tremendous. Such an important autumn source of nectar... 🐝🐞🦋
Apologies, this post isn't about last night's aurora (😉). So wonderful to hear Garden Warbler song echoing out all across the valley this last week - what a gorgeous, bubbling song. I know they don't look particularly dazzling, but have a closer listen...
#dawnchorus
#birdsong
I decided to convert one of our plant pots into a homemade parabolic reflector. The results are brilliant! Really looking forward to getting more recordings of birdsong and calls over the coming weeks, especially with such minimal
#noisepollution
atthe moment...
Absolutely mega!!! A colony of cliff-nesting House Martins in Glen Doll over 750m elevation on craggy outcrops! So cool to see, with over 60 nests in total. Awesome find
@billsbirding
- a distraction from our micro moth explorations.
Anyone else know of cliff colonies like this?
Isabelline Wheatear!!!! Pretty excited to have stumbled on this beauty with Gethin Jenkins-Jones whilst birding along the tip of the Llyn Peninsula just now. First self-found lifer in a while!
@RareBirdAlertUK
To improve my Welsh, I've decided to try learning the
#Welsh
names of birds, insects and other wildlife alongside my work with the
#SummittoSea
project. Today's species: Bronwen Y Dŵr ('whitebreast of the water'), a classic inhabitant of fast-moving rivers across the uplands...
And they're up! First two Swift nestboxes installed here in Machynlleth as part of a community project to get 50-100 boxes up over the next year! Cannot wait to hear these beauties back in our skies. Thanks to the Garthgwynion estate for a kind donation to the project!
It's infuriating to see so many landowners and farmers removing hedgerows recently - right in the middle of the bird nesting season. How can this be legal??? It would be really great to see some action on this
@CyngorGwynedd
@NatResWales
Six months on, and our pond is now a flourishing ecosystem: Palmate Newts, Common Frogs, Toads, Water Boatmen, Diving Beetles, Pond Skaters and all manner of other invertebrate and plantlife. An amazing transformation for such a small patch of land. How are others' ponds doing?
Swallows pretending to be Long-tailed Tits - watch to the end! I've enjoyed the company of these four Swallow fledglings as my neighbours for the last week whilst on Bardsey Island, and I can't blame them for their reluctancy in leaving amidst the current weather!
Hi
@angleseycouncil
. I emailed you several weeks ago enquiring about measures to address the highly disruptive jet ski behaviours around sensitive bird colonies this summer. I've still not heard back and would appreciate a response :)
I hate balloons. And I don't use that word lightly. Dead Kittiwake washed up on Porth Neigwl with balloon cord very tightly wrapped around the base of the wing. Can't be sure it was the cause of death, but it shouldn't be in the sea anyway! A French ringed bird with colour rings
Currently in Cyprus with
@birdlifecyprus
helping in the battle against the illegal trapping & slaughter of migratory birds.
I’ve followed this hurrendous activity in previous years from
@ChrisGPackham
&
@CABS_REPORTS
, but it’s grim seeing what goes on firsthand. More to follow.
This is so cool!!! Mountain Beavers. Stumbled upon my first ever Beaver pool this morning, at over 480m elevation in an area of restored montane woodland. What a delight to see the habitats they’re creating and size of the standing water they’re holding back! Awesome.
It's hard to put words to describe this sound.
Cri'r Gylfinir - the cry of the Curlew 🎶⛰️ It's been a joy working with
@RSPBCymru
@CriGylfinir
in north-east Wales to get recordings with various schools and see the faces of the kids as they hear the burbling cry. Arbennig iawn.
This week I led a wildlife soundscape workshop in a secondary school in Machynlleth. None of the kids could identify the song of Curlew, Skylark or even Blackbird; one correctly guessed Cuckoo. And this is a rural area! A reminder why a Natural History GCSE is so needed...
What a shimmering field of joy. Our first Common Spotted Orchid!!! Over the last 5 years ago, my parents have transformed our field into an amazing wildflower meadow with the help of Yellow Rattle sown in 2021. Right now it’s chock full of Catsears and buzzing with insects! 😄🌿
The unseen impact of the shooting industry: shotgun wads. The plastic remnant fired from shotgun barrels - one of countless millions that must end up in our countryside & seas every year...we picked up over 50 along a twenty metre stretch of Hell’s Mouth beach last weekend.
Something to brighten this bleak, stormy day...this week's birdsong ID video is here!🌿🎶 Featuring the incredibly uplifting song from the Skylark (Ehedydd in Welsh), which has been just THE best thing to hear again!
Full version available on YouTube:
A real shame to have six shooters deliberately flushing 100s of roosting BT Godwits, Lapwings, Avocets & wildfowl out of Oare Marshes during the high tide roost. A wetland of international importance with sport shooting underway - surely there’s something wrong here?
I'm officially a student again! 😆😄 Excited to announce that I'm beginning a PhD on European Storm-petrels with
@cardiffuni
@RobThomas14
@sjurdur
, thanks to a successful funding bid to
@GranskingFo
. It'll be very cool to uncover more about these incredible little seabirds!
So lucky to have a hotspot of these crackers above my house in Machynlleth...I’ve had 40 in one flock! Sad to think this was a common sight not that long ago - Wales has lost 58% of its Yellowhammers in my lifetime. Here’s a close up from one ringed in my garden this morning...
It appears the Bee-eaters have not in fact turned tail with the bitter northerly winds and left for warmer climes: reports emerging that the flock are a few kilometres further north on the Llyn, sheltering in Ash trees and periodically nipping out to catch the odd bee or fly!
Not a great bit of footage, but it was brilliant to have 90 Choughs in a roost this week - really reassuring to see after the recent cold weather period. Such an uplifting sight as they arrive in their superb aerobatic displays!
@cornishchoughs
@RSPBRamsey
After weeks of work in the Storm-petrel colony here in the Faroes, today is a very exciting day. We have just retrieved our first
@pathtrackltd
GPS tag from a breeding bird and will soon have our first foraging track from this immense colony. Updates to come!!!
Speaking to a local 95 year-old who remembers commonly finding the nests of these almost vanished waders as a child: the Gylfinir.
I want to look back at 95 and be able to say: 'I remember how we brought back nature from the brink and filled the skies with their calls again...'
Autumn moths are rather splendid. Can you spot the Pink-barred Sallow? A great haul in the garden moth trap last night, including lots of Autumnal Rustics, Brindled Ochre and Lunar Underwings 🍁
Absolutely blown away to see the Carrifran Wildwood project yesterday - a beacon of hope and inspirational place that shows what is possible in restoring our landscape and bringing back nature into degraded areas. Even saw Black Grouse feasting on bilerries!
@BordersForest
Couldn’t believe it when this shiny 4x4 drove past us onto the delicate maritime grassland near St Mary’s Well, right over an important archeological site at Mynydd Mawr. The driver continued regardless of my comments, parking just to get a bit closer to his fishing spot. Unreal.
We need to do better than this.
Some of the few corridors of habitat we have, absolutely butchered by completely inappropriate flailing. We really need a rethink and retraining of hedgerow management. The adoption of
@CoedCadw
's
#HedgesandEdges
scheme would be a great start!
It's all too easy to lose faith in our ability to turn around the crises we currently face. But stories of hope abound.
I've been so lucky to literally live in one for the last year in the Dyfi Valley, that's been transformed in 35 years
IT. IS. POSSIBLE.
#GenerationRestoration
The first GPS track of a Storm-petrel from the Faroe Islands - super exciting to have finally managed this after a lot of hard work from all involved!!! A south-east foraging foray towards Shetland over 2 days, reaching 160km at its furthest point.
#biologging
#seabirdresearch
We have a pond!!! Couldn’t quite get Tia (the dog) to pose for scale this time, but here we are! Still many tweaks to be done and habitat intervention (mainly targeting marshy plants). Can’t wait to see what appears over the coming weeks and months.
#projectpond
The things that catch the eye as you wander the woods with a macro lens. An Oak leaf catching the morning light, and the silhouette of a nearby Bonnet mushroom highlighted against its yellowing venations. Colour ebbing into the underworlds of the forest floor for winter 🍂
Pretty awesome scenes after the clouds parted atop the Nantlle ridge in
#Snowdonia
today. Crossbills overhead, Fox moth caterpillars lurking in the grass, Mistle Thrushes singing and glorious winter sunshine. A beautiful Christmas Day in Wales for once!
What ecologist doesn't like a good wet seepage?? A stunning assemblage of plantlife and bryophytes adorning this wet flush on the side of Cader Idris this morning. The Fountain Apple-moss has to be one of my favourites, but just look at the Sphagnum!!! 🌿👌🏼
An intricate masterpiece. THE coolest nest around, and an absolute delight to find one on my doorstep yesterday, accompanied by the excited chitterings of the adult Long-tailed Tits. Let the nest recording season begin!!!
@rock_nester
@_BTO
S O U N D S C A P E S
An atmospheric morning in the woods near our home on Mynydd Rhiw. Audio on! Absolutely awesome hearing the Raven vocalisations so clearly through the
#plantpotparabolic
. Such an emphatic sound.
@SoundApproachUK
This is so cool - never seen a colony of Sand Martins nesting in a derelict building before!!! A bustling colony of 20+ pairs using cavities between the brickwork as their nest sites. A real gem to find whilst stopping off near Kenmore (Loch Tay) to charge the van!
And they're here!!! Audio on 🎶🌿🔊 . What a delight to hear these beauties again, filling the willows and scrubby mountainsides around the Dyfi with their magical song. The Willow Warblers are back.
#PlantPotParabolic
#Welsh
wildlife name of the day: the charismatic Bran goesgoch ('red-legged crow'), dweller of coastal cliffs and the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia). I'm incredibly lucky to have these on my garden bird table list! Apparently the collective noun is a 'clattering' of Chough...
WHAT A SOUND 🎶🦉🌖
Two nights ago I was awoken by this awesome beauty blasting its call out above my caravan at 2am. I sprung out of bed, grabbed the
#PlantPotParabolic
and stood on the drive under the moon in my boxers recording its soulful cry.
Thankfully no cars passed by.
Remember the GPS tracking we carried out on Bardsey's Manx Shearwaters over the summer? Gradually getting through the stats analysis for my
#dissertation
! Here is a map of all the chick-rearing trips we attained...the longest (self-provisioning?) trip covered 1994 km in 5 days!
THREAD: plantpot parabolic construction! After popular demand, a few images describing the simple procedure to make one yourself. Feel free to contribute thoughts and ideas for improvements, but it’s working very well so far! (Recordings to follow).
The moment a bottling Grey Seal lets out some air and sinks to the sea floor, seemingly whilst still asleep 😆. Just hilarious watching this individual dozing about in the tranquil waters of Ynys Enlli's southern coast this morning. Never seen this before!
A magical moment at dusk yesterday evening 🌿🎶💚 truly lifts the soul at this often weary and gloomy time of year before the embers of spring truly burst into life. The
#PlantPotParabolic
is back!
FIRST CHIFFCHAFF SONG OF THE YEAR!!! Finally. What an uplifting start to the day. Wheatears will be whisking their white bums along in these southerlies. Cannot wait. 🌿
A powerful reminder of nature's ability to recover whilst walking up Yr Wyddfa yesterday. As we see the UN decade on ecosystem restoration launched, we need
@WelshGovernment
to step up to the challenge and put words into action with our own landscape's restoration here in Cymru🌿
For this week's birdsong ID video, I throw the spotlight onto a species so often overlooked amidst the more showy songsters: the humble Dunnock (Llwyd y Gwrych in Welsh, which means 'Grey of the hedge'!). I hope you enjoy! Previous videos on YouTube here:
Does a 'Wildflower Verge Award' exist?!
@Love_plants
If not, it should. Celebrating some of the best examples of verges in each village, town, city or county. Some gorgeous contenders in Rhiw today whilst on Pen Llŷn for a few days! Absolutely thrumming with life.
#LetItBloomJune
When you realise
#ShiftingBaseline
syndrome is already occurring in your own lifetime 😞 I’ve not seen an adult Garden Tiger in 2 years, and remember catches of 300+ moths in ONE NIGHT whilst living on Ynys Enlli. So wonderful to see yesterday.
📉⬇️90% in abundance since 1960s
Probably one of the most ethereal runs I’ve ever had. An epic series of ridges, cliff edges and rugged mountains, with a snowstorm of Fulmars tracing flight paths along the basalt strata. It was hard to take it all in.
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across this Merlin on the north coast of the Llyn, running around a patch of grassland catching craneflies. Has anyone seen this sort of behaviour before? Amazing to watch!
A lovely clatter of Choughs gathering for roost at dusk yesterday evening with
@HannahHereward
. At least I think that's the collective noun for Chough!!!
@cornishchoughs
? Great to have around 50 birds still present on Pen Llyn at the moment...
Annnnnnnd SPRING HAS BEGUN! Finally, a beautiful Wheatear gracing the mountainside here on Mynydd Rhiw; gleaming in the morning light. What an absolute stunner. So good to see!!! 🌿
New profile pic...remembering those lush spring days wandering around the hillside with my plantpot parabolic reflector, listening to the cacophonous uprising of the dawn chorus each morning. Not long to go now we're past the shortest day! 🌿
What on earth is going on here
@NatResWales
?? Looks like a swathe of diverse, mossy hummocks on the forest floor and nearby dry stone walls have been sprayed with glyphosate after this area has been clear-felled. In Coed y Brenin forest today - any ideas what's been done here?
The many aerial forms of the 'Fire Raven' (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), aka the Red-billed Chough! Delightful watching their antics in the gale-force winds and updrafts around Uwchmynydd and along the
@WalesCoastPath
. Of course you sadly don't get their piercing cries in these pics!
The 5000 year old Scots Pines of Borth’s submerged forest were looking pretty impressive at low tide. It’s always enthralling to stroll amongst the stumps and picture what it might once have looked like...
After the superb machair grasslands of the Outer Hebrides, it’s fantastic to return to our little
#wildflower
patch at home and see just how much it’s proliferated in the last two weeks! Utterly buzzing with pollinators too.
#30DaysWild
#day14
Next up in my birdsong ID series is the characterful little Wren, or Dryw in Welsh. A powerful songster given its size, and one whose sweet and melodic song is increasingly prominent in our spring soundscape! I hope you enjoy 🌿
More in the series here:
Ivy Leaf Parachutes (Marasmius epiphylloides) emerging from a rotting Ivy Leaf for
#7DaysOfWildChristmas
. Delving into the world of
#fungi
has been fascinating this winter, rooting around in rotting wood and leaf litter for beauties like these!
One of the most uplifting songs drifting through the woods right now...the Great Tit (Titw mawr) 🌿🎶🌳. Another short
#birdsongID
video focussed on getting to grips with this songster. Full length film available on YouTube:
@SIBirdClub
@EcomuseumsLive
Cycle to
#COP26
🚴🌎🍁 Setting off with a group from Machynlleth today to cycle northward to Glasgow over the next 10 days, raising awareness of the climate crisis and supporting the amazing
@LandworkersUK
en route. We have a good tailwind for today's journey!
Just listen to that! 😄🎶🗻 What a wonderful, melodic song echoing out across the rugged landscape of our highest mountain plateau. Truly stunning to hear Snow Buntings singing away. Gutted not to have my
#PlantPotParabolic
with me though!!!
@billsbirding
@jadephill10
An epic evening for a 22km run over Cader Idris (a National Nature Reserve). And wildlife? I saw 2 Skylarks, 5 Meadow Pipits and a Wheatear. That's not a sentence I want the next generation to be able to say. That is not OK.
#biodiversitycrisis
#shiftingbaseline
#restorenature
Happy Winter Solstice everyone! A short film from this morning, with audio from the trusty
#plantpotparabolic
. I hope you can take a couple of minutes to enjoy the peace and tranquility amidst the chaos of current times!
@SIBirdClub
#mindfulnessmoments
A couple more images of today's wonderful Isabelline Wheatear at Trwyn Bychestyn, Pen Llŷn. Pottering about with Stonechats and Choughs, in the coastal grassland. A cracking bird.
📍Details of location and access below for anyone interested in trying tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Have you heard? 👀
@rwtwales
have announced their very first Ambassador... Ben Porter! 🤩
@bardseyben
is an ecologist, researcher, and award-winning wildlife photographer from the windswept island of Ynys Enlli off North Wales 🌍🌊📸✊
What a sight - over 60 Choughs in a flock near Mynydd Mawr this morning, and an encouragingly high number of fledgling young from this year too! Such a fantastic sound to hear. They were looking pretty hot in the intense heat of midday though!
#BranGoesgoch