Friday, 8 June 2018

Another stunning hot day provided the perfect opportunity for taking our guided walk participants up onto Pen Cristin. A fly over Yellow Wagtail was our bird highlight from the walk, but the plants were out in force and everyone got to learn about the rarer species that are found on Bardsey and very few other places in the UK. Two Black-tailed Godwits in Henllwyn were the first of the year and a scarcely annual bird on Bardsey.

Other birds seen today included 2150 Manx Shearwaters, a Grey Heron, a Buzzard, a Peregrine, three Lapwings, two Curlews, a Collared Dove, two Little Owls, a Blackcap, six Chiffchaffs, two Willow Warblers, two Chaffinches, a Siskin, two Goldfinches, 14 Linnets and two Lesser Redpolls.

Pwll Cain was the place to be today. We may be in times of drought, but there's still plenty of water in the pond, and healthy populations of invertebrates can be found around its fringes at the moment.

The Brown China-mark moth is abundant around the pond at the moment. The larvae are completely aquatic, living and feeding on plants underwater, only coming to the surface to pupate!

The tiny Glyphipterix thrasonella can't boast about having aquatic caterpillars, but it does have a lovely metallic sheen to it when the light is right. It feeds on Rushes and is very common throughout the damper parts of the island at the moment.

Pwll Cain holds a small population of Azure Damselfly, but patience is needed to pick one out amongst the much larger populations of Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Bog Pimpernel is beginning to flower in... yes, that's right... the island's bogs!

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