Spot the Grass Snake

After the Spot the Adder, see if you can see Grass Snake in this photo.

Find the Snake 2

Ada was out basking in the sun again this morning in her usual patch. It sometimes takes me a while to spot her even though I know what area she will be in. See if you can spot her in the photo

Spot the Snake

I found "Ada" the adder basking in her regular patch this morning. See if you can see her in the bottom photo taken from exactly the same place as the close up. You will probably need to click on the photo and then enlarge it but I promise you she is there.

Grass Snake

First Grass Snake of 2011 spotted basking on Lon Cae Glas near Edern this lunchtime

Andrena mining bee

Sue spotted a few obvious nest mounds of mining bees on the coast path this morning. We then saw one fo the bees feeding nearby on a dandelion, its possibly the Tawny Mining Bee(Andrena fulva)

Adder

We spotted Ada the Adder basking in her usual spot on Lon Cae Glas again this afternoon. Despite the lovely sunny weekend its the only reptile we spotted the whole weekend.

Another female Meloe proscarabaeus.

Sue spotted another female Meloe proscarabaeus as walked down the coast from Edern to Morfa Nefyn this morning. Thats the four Oil beetle record soc far this year and all from differant locations.

More Spring Plants

Red Campion (Silene dioica)

Garlic Mustard/Hedge garlic (Alliaria petiolata)

Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa)

Three new spring plants added to our year list as we cucled around the Penllyn today.

Two new butterflies for the year

Comma(Polygonia c-album)

Green-veined White (Pieris napi)

We spotted out first Comma butterfly of 2011 on the lane running down to the beach at Llanbedrog today while out cycling. Sue spotted the Green-veined White as we cycled back now to Edern.

Badger Spring Clean

OLD BEDDING

PATH

EXCAVATIONS

I visted a large badger sett on the coast this morning and was delighted to see signs of activity all around the sett. This sett is huge with at least 12 entrances/exits and badger paths running all along the coast from it. The photos show one of the paths coming out on the top of the cliffs, some fresh excavation at one of the entrances and a large pile of thrown out bedding.

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

I heard my first Chiffchaf calling on Monday afternoon at the bottom end of the village and by today they are all around Edern. Nice to see the first migrant warblers of the year so early,

Wild Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

I found my first flowering Wild Primroses this morning on the coast above Edern. This area will be covered with thousands of them soon, but its always nice to spot the first ones of the year.

Early Dog-Violet (Viola reichenbachiana)

These Early Dog-Violets - Viola reichenbachiana are flowering in some profusion now all around Edern. This group is on a Clawdd on Lon Cae Glas. This morning almost every clump had 7 spot Ladybirds clambering over them.

Hooded Crow

I spotted this Hoodie on the golf course at Morfa Nefyn yesterday. Not very good photos due the sea fret rolling in at the time and the fact that the bird would not let me get close to it. I suspect this particualr bird had wandered across from Ireland.

The hooded crow is closely related to the carrion crow, which until recently was regarded as the same species. In areas where the two species overlap there may be some interbreeding with hybrids showing a mixed grey and black body plumage. Like carrion crows, hoodies also feed on dead animals. Unlike crows they can be more sociable in the feeding habits and groups of them may be seen together in fields.Found in N and W Scotland, N Ireland and on the Isle of Man, where it replaces the carrion crow. Outside the breeding season it is found across the breeding range and is also found, but scarce in E Scotland and even rarer down the eastern side of England.

Common Lizard

I spotted this very colourful Common Lizard taking advantage of the hot sunshine on offer today

Solitary Mining Bees

I am not sure of the species of these Mining Bees but they belong to the Andrena family I thing. A large colony of these are nesting in a Clawdd on a local lane near Edern. They may be Andrena Haemorrhoa the early mining bee.

Oil Beetle:Meloe proscarabaeus

These are photos of the other Oil Beetle found on the Llyn so far. A large female of Meloe proscarabaeus. Some idea of her size can be seen in relation to my hand.

Snakes & Lizards

A few stills of the female Adder seen today on Lon Cae Glass.I think she was about 24inches in length and looked to be in good condition having just come out of hibernation. I have not seen Adders basking stretched out like this before, they are usually coiled. I quite often see Grass Snakes stretched out like this and they rarely seem to coil up to bask

The male Common Lizard shown was a very nicely marked specimen. I spotted around 10 of these in various spots on the lane on my walk

Female Adder

First snake of the year spotted this lunchtime on a Clawdd on Lon Cae Glas near Edern.

First Hoverlies of 2011

Spotted the first hoverlies of the year on my way home from this lunchtimes walk. Several specimens of the Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax) were feeding on the open flowers of Lesser Celadine

Common Lizards

I went for a walk up Lon Cae Glas at Edern this lunchtime to see if the warm spring sunshine had tempted any Adders out hibernation. Sadly despite an extensive search in the usual favorite spots none where visible. There were however numerous Common Lizards around in sunny spots soaking up the sunshine, I spotted at least a dozen. The litle fella shown was particularly approachable to have his photo taken.

Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria)

First one of these moths in the garden last night. I left the outside light on to see if any moths were around despite the chilly night aand this moth appeared on the van side. It was too poor lighting to photograph the moth so I borrowed this image from a mate website to show what it looks like. The best moth identifcation website on the web is UK Moths run by Ian Kimber at http://ukmoths.org.uk/

First Butterfly in the garden in 2011

We had our first buttererfly garden visitor this monrning here at Edern. The Peacock (Inachis io) flew around briefly this lunchtime before departing over the fields. The photo is of a garden visitor from last year

First bumblebee of 2011

Large queen Bombus terrestris seen in out garden here in Edern yesterday on the first real spring day of the year.