Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

Sue and I had a trip up to the man made pond in the quarries above Trevor previously shown on the blog to what if anything was around on a lovely summer afternoon. We spotted a few adult Dragonflies flying around the pond and closer inspection of the emergent vegetation showed several empty larval skins and a couple of dragonflies emerging and drying their wings. On our return Sue identified the adults and exuviae as belonging to Southern Hawker a new species to both of us .

Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja)

Sue and I were coming back from a visit to the pond in the quarry above Trefor on Friday afternoon just above Nant Gwrtheyrn when we spotted a largish orange looking butterfly pass on the slopes below us. Knowing that Dark Green Fritillary was supposed to be on the wing at the moment we set off in pursuit. Sure enough as we got nearer and got the bins on the butterfly we realised it was indeed this species, out first ever sighting of this magnificent butterfly.

The butterfly was a female and appeared to be drinking from boggy areas and sunbathing rather than actively feeding of looking for egg laying sites on Violets which as far as we are aware do not occur on these slopes despite being very common in parts of the peninsula. After our views of Southern Hawker dragonflies emerging and flying around the pond for the first time and a new species to both of us it turned out to be a memorable nature watching afternoon in beautiful surroundings.

UPDATE: On closer inspection of the photos shown I noticed that the next to bottom photo shows the female actually egg laying on Marsh Violet. If you look closely you can see the tiny flower of this plant and the females abdomen curving under the plant to lay an egg. We are going back to the place to check for more violets and ova if possible on the next sunny day (assuming we get one of course this July !)

Unusual Pond

Sue and I found a superb artificial pond whilst exploring the slopes on the quarries above Trefor. The “pond” looks like it was originally built to store water for some part of the quarrying production. The pond is around 18 metres in length by 5 metres in width. Depth does not appear to be more than about 1.5 metres maximum and most of the pond much shallower than this with sparse vegetation mainly at one end of the pond. What immediately drew out attention were the huge number of Smooth Newts in the pond in May, we counted over 50 surfacing to breath in a 5 minute period so estimate the pond must contain hundreds of adult newts. Dragonfly larvae were seen resting head down on the vegetation waiting to grab any unwary Common Frog tadpoles of which there were hundreds seen.

We intend to investigate the pond more fully come the summer holidays when we will have time to net the pond to see what other invertebrates we can find and identify.

Butterflies in 2010

A much better year for Butterfly sightings this year compared to 2008 and 2009. The dry sunny conditions have given Sue and I the chance to see far more numbers and species this year so far up to July. Small Heath in particular has been around in huge numbers especially on the slopes around the Rivals above Nant Gwrtheyrn

Hesperiidae
Skippers

Large Skipper
Small Skipper

Pieridae
Whites

Large White
Small White
Green Veined White
Orange Tip

Lycaenidae
Hairstreaks,Coppers,Blues

Small Copper
Common Blue


Nymphalidae
Nymphalids,Fritillaries,Browns

Small Tortoisehell
Painted Lady
Comma
Peacock
Grayling
Meadow Brown
Ringlet
Gatekeeper
Wall
Small Heath
Speckled Wood

Painted Lady Caterpillars

There are hundreds, probably thousands of the caterpillars of Painted Lady in spinnings on thistles all along the coast here on the Llyn this year. Mainly on Cirsium vulgare (Spear Thistle) but also on C.arvense (Creeping or Field Thistle). These are bred from eggs laid by the huge influx of migrant Painted Ladies which arrived earlier in the summer. Sadly the adults cannot survive our winters but at least we should have good numbers of the adults flying until early autumn at least

No insects of any sort moving here today as we are battered in yet another severe westerly gale with torrential rain.....what happened to the dry hot bbq summer the met office forecast earlier this year !

Viviparous or Common Lizard's

The clawdd's (hedge/banks)of the local lane I walk most days have numerous colonies of Common lizards scattered all along the lane, no doubt providing at least one food source for the local Adder population which also exist in some numbers along the lane. One particular spot is almost certain to have Lizards most sunny days in spring, summer and early autumn basking. There are a couple of spots on the clawdd which have bare patches of soil and I trim the vegetation back regularly here to keep them open for lizards to bask and to give Sue and I a good view of them when we walk the lane. The lizards have obviously bred this year as we regularly see tiny lizards ranging from around 5cm up to 8cm basking in these spots. One thing we have noticed is that the young lizards never bask in company with the adults, perhaps they are viewed as a potential food source by the adults ? One photo shows two small lizard's hiding as I approached with the camera to take a photo and the image showing the close up of a lizard around 8 cm in length was taken on the way back down the lane in the same spot when I managed to creep up without disturbing them

Snouty & the Cats

Snouty the resident male hedgehog in the garden is seen here feeding alongside a mother feral cat and one of her four kittens. I will be trying to catch the cat and her kittens over the next few weeks to get them neutered and safely re-homed. Judging by the number of these feral cats I have trapped and passed on to local cat rescue so far in the last 12 months its going to be a permanent ongoing operation