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.