Last few days round-up

 Melangyna lasiophthalma - I have recorded 16 of this species in March, which is my highest yearly count beating 2018 (12). As well as previously reported, new for the year were Episyrphus balteatus and a fine male Criorhina ranunculi, although it was too high up for a photograph (bins view only) on Sallow.

 Gorse Shieldbug

 Primrose - most of the early spring flowers are now in bloom, I've been keeping an eye on this species as it has a species of fly that leaf mines it at this time of the year, no luck yet.

Sallow blossom - this fallen but blooming blossom at Lletty woods earlier in the week was a good source for hoverflies to feed on, I stayed here for about 30 mins and had 5 species of hoverfly.

More excercise

Today's exercise was around Foel Fawr, when I got a phone call to go back to work, who seem to be pulling a fast one with the government as we are not essential workers. Nevertheless I had a quick jaunt around the clear-fell areas. No hoverflies today, but plenty of butterflies sunning on the paths and tracks - Small Tortoiseshell (7) and Peacock (6). A few spring bumblebees was pretty much all else that was seen, New blooms in Round-leaved Water-crowfoot and a few bird species, see below.

 Small Tortoiseshell

 Peacock

 Foel Fawr - after 10 years since the forestry was clear-felled, returning to it's natural habitat. Meadow Pipit and Mistle thrush the only birds present

Foel Fawr - after 15 years since clear-felling, back to its natural habitat of moorland "white" grass. Good numbers of Meadow Pipit (6pair), Skylark (1pair) and Stonechat (2pair) present and will no doubt be supplemented with summer breeders like Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Grasshopper Warbler in the coming weeks.

Blaencaerau

With my factory shutting down today at 12pm and with full pay to boot, shopping is done, so all that is left is a 2hr outdoor exercise according to Boris. I "exercised" around an empty Blaencaerau, 3 species of hoverfly were seen, nothing new for the year.  Totals were Platycheirus albimanus (5m), Melangyna lasiophthalma (2f) and Eristalis pertinax (2).

Other new insects for the year included the tachinid fly Gonia picea (3), the butterfly Peacock (3) and March fly Bibio lanigerus (1). On the bird front a single Chiffchaff was calling. No new blooms today.

 Tachinidae - Gonia picea

March fly species - Bibio lanigerus

Garnwen Sunday

Another fine and breezy day with not a lot of social distancing going on. Usually have the place to myself but today there were at least 30 cars there when I arrived. So took a side path away from the madding crowd, which worked out well. 4 species of hoverfly recorded in Platycheirus albimanus (2), Melangyna lasiophthalma (9), Cheilosia albipila (f) and Eristalis pertinax (7). The Melangyna particularly feeding on Gorse.

First Tachina Ursina (5) of the spring along with Honey Bee (6), Yellow-footed Furrow Bee (1) and Buff-tailed Bumblebee (1). Other insects included Small Tortoiseshell and Larch Ladybird. Another 3 Chiffchaff were singing and a few pairs of Siskin were displaying.

 Melangyna Lasiophthalma

 Tachina ursina

Larch Ladybird

And we're off

Took a trip down Lletty Brongu woods in the pleasant sunshine but stiff breeze in search of my first hoverflies of the year. I connected with Platycheirus albimanus on the first Lesser Celandine plant from the car. Totals for the day were Platycheirus albimanus (18 male) and Eristalis pertinax (22) feeding mainly on Lesser Celandine, but a few were on the little bit of Sallow that was in blossom.

Other insects included Honey Bee (10), Tree Bumblebee (1), Buff-tailed Bumblebee (1) and the first butterfly of the year in Comma (1). 2 male Chiffchaff were singing heralding the return of our summer breeding birds. Flowers in bloom included Daffodil, Lesser Celandine, Wood Anemone and Early Dog Violet.

 Eristalis pertinax

Platycheirus albimanus

specimen photos

 Cheilosia impressa - a Cheilosia with black legs, hairy eyes and no erect face hairs can only be impressa So this species can be done from photos, a yellow tinge to wing base is also a good pointer on females.

 Eumerus funeralis - sadly Eumerus can't be done from photos, but this one turned out to be funeralis.

 Eupeodes corollae - corollae is the only species where the yellow markings on abdomen reach the sides, so this species is identifiable from a photo.

 Eupeodes luniger - males with the yellow on the abdomen not reaching the sides are generally too difficult to identify from a photo, this one turned out to be the commonest species in luniger.

Melangyna arctica - although some Melangyna are easy to identify, arctica is not and you really need a photo of the frons to take this one closer to its identity, a specimen is the only safe way to put a name to this photo.

Hoverfly season about to start

Hoverfly season is about to start (17th March) and I have just received a reply from Roger Morris of the Hoverfly Recording Scheme with the results of the specimens I took last year and its good news, with 7 species new for the valley taken our total to 142. Results are below - 


New for valley

Brachyopa Pilosa     07 May 2019 Garnwen [SS8392] - 3rd for Wales, new for Glamorgan.

A local species, mainly in south England, larva feed in sap suns of Aspen. It was taken feeding on Sycamore, the only Aspen in the area is of a single tree at Maesteg Golf Course about 600 metres away across the main road.

Eumerus funeralis     20 May Blaencaerau [SS8694] - frequent in UK.

Common species frequently seen in gardens, whose Larva feed on bulbous plants like Daffodil, Iris and Bluebell. Adult was taken at Dogwood at the back of Railway Terrace near a large Yellow Iris bed about 10 individuals were present, probably all this species. Incidentally Eumerus strigatus (also new for valley) was also taken at this site but later in the year (August/September), and there was no flight season overlap. 

Parhelophilus frutetorum     20 May 2019 Blaencaerau [SS8694] - frequent in UK.

Common species usually associated with reed-beds and bull-rush ponds, mainly coastal in Wales. An adult was taken at one of the drainage ponds covered in bull-rush at the colliery spoil site behind Railway Terrace. Parhelophilus versicolor was also present in much larger numbers.

Platycheirus aurolateralis   23 May 2019 Caerau [SS8594] - New for Wales and Glamorgan. 

An extremely rare species with less than 15 UK records, all in southern England. Very little is known about the species and was taken by sweeping the dry grassland of the colliery spoil, part of which is in the Caerau 1 kilometre square.

Psilota anthracina     06 June 2019 Gilfach (west) [SS8487] - New for Wales and Glamorgan.

A scarce species of ancient beech woodland in the UK, with records mostly around the New Forest, Hampshire and Windsor Park, London. But on the continent it is a species of spruce plantation. It was at such a plantation that the specimen was taken feeding on Ground Elder. A further 2 adults were at the same site on 19 June 2019.

Xylota tarda     06 June 2019 Gilfach (west) [SS8487] - 3rd for Wales and new for Glamorgan.

A scarce species associated with Aspen, mainly in southern England but with scattered records elsewhere. Taken at the car park flowers, there may be Aspen a little way down the valley, but none in the immediate vicinity.

Melangyna arctica     09 June 2019 Garnwen [SS8392] - New for Glamorgan.

A frequent species of spruce plantations in northern and western UK, but is the furthest south in Wales it has been recorded.




Other goods records

Cheilosia fraterna (7), Cheilosia ranunculi (1), Cheilosia vernalis (2), Chrysogaster virescens (1), Dasysyrphus pinastri (3), Dasysyrphus venustus (3), Eupeodes lapponicus (2), Lejogaster metallina (1), Melangyna labiatarum (2), Neoascia meticulosa (1), Orthonevra nobilis (2), Parasyrphus punctulatus (1), Parhelophilus versicolor (1), Pipiza noctiluca (1), Platycheirus tarsalis (3) and Sphaerophoria philanthus (1)

Common records

Cheilosia albitarsis (3), Cheilosia bergenstammi (2), Cheilosia impressa (1), Cheilosia pagana (6), Cheilosia proxima (14), Cheilosia scutellata (9), Cheilosia variabilis (8), Chrysogaster solstitialis (2), Chrysotoxum arcuatum (1), Eupeodes corollae (3), Eupeodes luniger (2), Melanogaster hirtella (10), Melanostoma mellinum (2), Melanostoma scalare (2), Meliscaeva auricollis (1), Neoascia podagrica (1), Pipizella viduata (3), Platycheirus albimanus (1), Platycheirus scutatus (2), Sphaerophoria scripta (1), Sphegina clunipes (3), Sphegina sibirica (7), Syrphus ribesii (1), Syrphus torvus (1), Syrphus vitripennis (2) and Xylota jakutorum (1).



On the recording front the 10 kilometre square at the top of the valley is now the highest recording square in Wales, while the lower valley square is 4th, list below - 

Caerau/ Maesteg - 133
Bangor - 130
Oxwich, Gower - 123
Llangynwyd - 119

I also have a number of photo of specimens that I took and I'll show them in the next post.

    

New Year's Day hike at Whiteford

In years gone by, myself, Paul Parsons, Colin Gittins and Paul Tabor used to visit Whiteford Burrows in the Gower at the turn of the new year to get the year list off to a good start. Past records I have suggest totals for the trip brought in roughly 60 species, today I got 52 a little down on past years. But it is the first time I've actually visited on the 1st January, the weather was terrible being misty with odd rain showers making photography almost impossible, hundreds of people were walking their dogs along the beach making the chance of finding something good (Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting or Shorelark) remote to say the least. I did manage a couple of good species though as listed below.


Great Northern Diver - winter plumage adult
Greater Scaup - 1 male, 2 female
Long-tailed Duck -1 female, firstly at the tip of the sand bar and then later in the main channel close to the old lighthouse (bird of the day)
Common Eider - in 2 flocks of 67 and 19 containing 62 male, 2 immature male and 22 female
Common Scoter - 1 male and female at sand bar tip and 1 male and 15 female spread out along the beach surf
Red-breasted Merganser - 1 male and 2 female
Little Egret -11 spread out around the marsh
Merlin - fine male in close flight


Wildfowl numbers also included 12 Great-crested Grebe, 450 Brent Goose, 170 Shelduck, 220 Wigeon, 60 Teal, 20 Shoveler and 350 Pintail. Wader numbers were 1170 Oystercatcher, 58 Grey Plover, 70 Red Knot, 25 Lapwing, 12 Ringed Plover, 130 Curlew, 263 Dunlin, 100 Redshank and 173 Turnstone. A wandering finch flock around the pines held 25 Chaffinch, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 12 Linnet and 4 Goldfinch. Other land birds included 8 Meadow Pipit, 4 Long-tailed Tit, 3 Reed Bunting, pair of Raven and a Green Woodpecker.

Since my last visit in 2010 the beach (Whiteford Sands) has changed quite dramatically through tidal and storm erosion. The beach used to be pristine golden sands for its 2 mile length, but all that is now gone for most of the length and the underlying bedrock and clay have been exposed making it much more difficult to walk on, so I cut back through the dunes about a third of the way along. Below is a stock photograph of what it used to look like and the last photo is what it looked like today.

 2010 - before storm and tidal erosion

2020 - after storm and tidal erosion

Hoverfly highlights 2019

I'm still waiting patiently for my specimen results for the year, Roger has assured me that they wont be to long now. So here's a round up of this years records and a few photos of the highlights.

 Cheilosia chrysocoma

 Chrysotoxum arcuatum

 Chrysotoxum festivum

 Criorhina asilica

Xanthogramma stackelbergi

sandgrouse

Sandgrouse are amongst my favourite bird families. There are 16 species in the family, I've seen 11 species of these of which I have photographed 8 species.

 Spotted Sandgrouse - Morocco

 Crowned Sandgrouse - Morocco

 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse - Ethiopia

 Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse - Ethiopia

 Black-bellied Sandgrouse - Kazakhstan

 Pallas's Sandgrouse - Kazakhstan

 Namaqua Sandgrouse - South Africa

Burchell's Sandgrouse [foreground] with Namaqua Sandgrouse [pair behind] - South Africa

Blast from the past volume 3 - African birds of prey

 Long-crested Eagle - Ethiopia

 Shikra - Ethiopia

 Osprey - Gambia

 Jackal Buzzard - South Africa

Pale-chanting Goshawk - South Africa

Blast from the past volume 2

Continuing on the theme on nocturnal birds here's some Owls.

 Pharoah's Eagle-Owl - Morocco

 Great Grey Owl - Finland

 Pygmy Owl - Finland

 Pearl-spotted Owlet - Gambia

Spotted Eagle-owl - South Africa

blast from the past volume 1

With the nights long and cold here's some nightjars roosting by day from the archive.

 Egyptian Nightjar - Morocco

 Montane Nightjar - Ethiopia

 Long-tailed Nightjar - Gambia

Standard-winged Nightjar - Gambia