Large Red Damselflies tandem

Even a small half-barrel pond in the garden can be a very attractive feature to both people and wildife. Our barrel pond is home to all sorts of interesting aquatic insects and it also makes a good drinking pond for birds in dry weather.

This video shows a pair of Large Red Damselflies egg laying in the pond in summer

GS Woodpecker young bird being fed by the male

Recently fledged young Great Spotted Woodpecker at the garden feeding station in Edern. The young bird is show feeding and then an adult male GS Woodpecker flies to the feeder and feeds the young bird. The male has a bright red cap/crown at the rear of his head, the young bird has a red cap at the front.

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker Feb 16th 2011

We have a regular pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers coming to the garden feeding station. This is the female seen feeding today, she can be seperated from the male by the lack of a red crown on the head. The juveniles have a redcap at the front of the head and the males a red cap at the back of the head.

Buzzard Update 15 Feb 2011

We got some dead Magpies left by a local gamekeeper this morning and put them out on the buzzard "feeding station" and sure enough Bertie appeared and plucked and scoffed them despite being bombed by the local crow population. He eventually had enough of being mobbed and took the carcases to his favorite hidden perch further up the field to eat them.

Top photo shows him pucking one Magpie and bottom photo shows the 3 Magpies I threw out into the field for him.

Buzzards

As well as a bird feeding station here in our garden at Edern we also have a feeding station some 30 yards from the caravan where we put carcasses for Buzzards. We put our roast chicken carasses out alongside any "roadkill" or donated dead crows etc given us by shooters.We have a regular Buzzard we nicknamed Bertie who appears regularly perched in a tree right by the van waiting for some food putting out.

Spring on its way

Lovely walk down from Edern to the golf course and Ty Coch then back round through the fields home to Edern. The first flowers of Spring are now out with Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) flowering well on many Clawdds with numerous patches of Red campion (Silene dioica) pushing through and as always the ever present Umbilicus rupestris (Navelwort, Penny-pies, Wall Pennywort)is around in huge numbers

First Butterfly of 2011

Sue and I found our first butterfly of 2011 on our cycle ride on Saturday 12th February. Bit of a cheat really as we found it in Plas Glyn-y-Weddw at Llanbedrog when we stopped for lunch in the café. It was flying at a window trying to get out after obviously hibernating in the gallery over winter. We set it free in the gardens.