Viewing entries tagged
Wild Flowers

Free for all comes at a cost.

Just when I think things are on the up, I get reminded just 8 days into Llandegfedd being back open to public, just how much the site is set on a downwards spiral.. I really hope new management turn things around as the current free-for-all setup is coming at the cost of our environment. I arrived to see Dog’s running around off lead on the island , a site that used to have breeding Lapwing. A fisherman set up very considerately right in front of Bert Hammar Hide, Poo Bags are thrown everywhere, Dog poo everywhere and plenty of litter. Welsh Water has done a lot of work this winter repairing the hides, with new roofs and bin additions, but I’m starting to think that all this encourages is for people to use the hides as picnic areas and not for their intended purpose. Just 8 days in and the bin is overflowing in Green Pool Hide and as a result, bottles, cans and wrappers surround the hide. Green Pool never saw litter prior to the installation of these bins, so I think they need to go. I was also very disappointed to see four silver birches cut down. These birches were planted as part of past conservation efforts and were reaching a good age, but it was deemed a necessary loss as it enabled DCWW to cut the grass with the tractor to save time. Three Boats were fishing right in Green Pool inlet and as a result, flushed what little Teal are left on site. There’s no policing of the site what so ever, which is exactly why these things go totally unnoticed by the rangers. This is what it’s like now, in wet and windy conditions, so you can imagine how bad it gets on sunny weekends during the summer.

Moving onto more positive things, I spent some time with the Macro lens, and I have a ‘thing’ where if I photograph something, I need to find out what it is, which is why I pick and choose what I photograph as it can often lead to a headache, as not all species are identifiable without use of a microscope. I just need to get some decent books. If it wasn’t for this website - https://www.naturespot.org.uk/ - I wouldn’t manage at all at the moment. I bought a Moss book but turns out it’s Arable Garden Mosses only, so not much good for me.
Any recommendations, please let me know! I want to grow my book collection.

Colourless Wild Flowers

What you may not know about me is, I'm actually colourblind. Contrary to popular belief, that doesn't mean I cannot see colour. My form of colourblindness makes me less sensitive to Reds and more sensitive to Greens. Theres no wonder that my favourite colour is Green right? 
Growing up, colourblindness did actually affect my life, especially during my Art classes. I tend to always favour drawing without colour entirely, simply because I would sometimes colour the Sun green and the sea purple without even knowing. It was frustrating, especially when my Art GCSE results came back pretty poorly.. Something that came as a massive shock to me and my family.. 

It certainly doesn't affect my birding, but may affect my photography, especially when editing photographs of flowers: something I actively avoid for fear of making it look like something it shouldn't. Below are some wild flowers that I've photographed at Llandegfedd so far this year. Starting with Cowslip, Bugle, Ferns and lastly a Red Campion. I see these flowers completely different to you, unless of course you have the same colourblindness as me? 

While we're on this topic, I've actually decided to do something about my colourblindness, thanks to a company called 'Enchroma':  They've managed to design a lens that corrects colourblindness! All while protecting my very sensitive green eyes from UV rays. (Something I've also struggled with in bright light). They aren't cheap, but it's worth the shot. I can't imagine what it must be like to experience the full spectrum of colour and hopefully I can edit my photographs to their full potential if the glasses work. If they work that well.. I may want to edit all my photographs from scratch.. but lets not get ahead of myself just yet. 

The Island

The Island

Wild Flower Garden

This year my girl friend and I made the decision to sow wild flowers in the Garden, in replace of some fairly typical Garden plants that I like to call 'fake plants'. By fake I mean, they don't really have any value to the ecosystem, other than sat there looking pretty. 

So in came the wild flowers and even though we were getting a few funny looks as the weed looking stems started shooting, we're so glad we did it now! Not only is the Garden looking very colourful, it has brought about lots of insect activity that we simple didn't get before! The Borage plants were getting huge and very weed looking until they flowered and now they are buzzing with life! As you can see below, this is the first ever Oak Bush Cricket I've had in the garden and with it, what I think is a Honey Bee (though I'm not a Bee expert at all)... 

I just about timed this right as the Bee flying from the flower made the cricket jump off the plant altogether. 

Because of the boost in insect activity, we've also started to get Toads visiting in the night time from the nearby Canal / Stream. Over-all, extremely happy and very low maintenance which is exactly what we needed. 

Funny that I should stumble upon this Oak Bush Cricket in the Garden.. as this was 1 of the 10 species we intended on finding at Llandegfedd's Grasshopper event with Steve Williams on the weekend.. We simply couldn't find one lol.. well there we go. #Garden-tick!