To the Woods and Beyond!

Lockdown rules have been relaxed slightly and we can now take 'unlimited' exercise - not quite sure about this as people still struggle with the social distancing part! Anyway myself and my daughter were up early on Sunday morning to walk down to the woods, it's a 6 mile round trip, it was warm but a little cloudy so just right for the walk. Going so early would hopefully mean it should still be quiet as some of the paths are a bit narrow and lots of local people have discovered the woods during the lockdown and it has been busy.

As it happened it was fairly quiet, just a handful of dog walkers, all cheery and happy to keep their distance, phew!

It's a lot greener since I was last there, you can barely see out of the tree canopies at times and that was wonderful!

There is Wild Garlic and Cow Parsley everywhere, there are Bluebells though I think we just missed them at their best.

We saw a few bees going in and out of this tree

A Wren was singing right by our heads at one point and a pair of Blackcaps were flying around the trees. I have noticed the Nuthatches seem to have disappeared, I haven't seen one at all in the woods this year. 

Wren

Distant Blackcaps

The entrance to the next part of the woods had been yarn bombed with rainbows and flowers. We saw a young Woodpigeon by the bird feeders and on the dipping pond a female Mallard, I know a pair have been seen on the pond during lockdown but I don't think they've nested. Long-tailed Tits were in the trees and just behind a Whitethroat was singing. There is already talk of closing the dipping pond due to the lack of rain, things are starting to dry up somewhat, we haven't had any decent rain in weeks.

Woodpigeon

Long-tailed Tits

Mallard

We walked down the Pit Hill fields for a little way, a singing Dunnock was at the start of the path. We counted 4 separate Chiffchaff calling, Greenfinch, Song Thrush, Chaffinch amongst others. The Hawthorn along the field is in full bloom and quite beautiful.

Dunnock

Greenfinch

Chiffchaff

Song Thrush

Under the motorway to have a walk along the fields - off the official patch for the patchwork challenge but that doesn't really count at the moment. The Lapwings are in their usual spot and Skylarks were singing high over the fields, what a joy this was, I was beginning to wonder if i'd hear them at all this year. We saw more Greenfinch, a House Sparrow with white wing feathers, there is a Sparrow that visits my garden that has white tail feathers, it's odd to see the white flashes when they fly. 

Lapwing

Greenfinch

House Sparrow

I saw Swallows, House Martins and Swifts, a Cormorant, a hovering Kestrel and back at the top part of the woods on another small pond a pair of Mallards.

It was a much needed walk and I was so pleased to be back in the woods again!

Pembrokeshire Holiday

We spent a few days away last week in Wales, we stayed in a cottage on a cliff top with a sea view pretty much in the middle of nowhere...........and it was lovely!

Within the first 10 minutes of exploring the garden I saw a new butterfly for me with two Walls in the grass - the first of many.

Speckled Wood

Common Blue

Small White

Small Tortoiseshell

Magpie Moth, I saw this in the same part of the garden every morning

Being an early riser (even on holiday) I was up by 6.30 most mornings and sat in the garden watching Gulls, Ravens, Crows, Swallows, Jackdaws overhead and in the garden itself a pair of Robins, Magpies, Chiffchaff, Dunnock Blue and Great Tits, Goldfinch, Blackcap, Linnets and a Pied Wagtail that spent a lot of time filling its beak with bugs off the lawn. It was the perfect way to start the day.

Pied Wagtail

Robin

Chiffchaff

Linnet

Jackdaw

Gulls

Goldfinch

Blackcap

Linnet

Magpie

Great Tit

We were about a five minute walk from Abereiddy beach, which was a really pebbly beach and very popular with coasteering and there were lots of (organised) groups doing this during the day.

A little further on from the beach was the Blue Lagoon, a former slate quarry, which during the day was very busy with the coasteering and cliff jumping! The first time we walked here it was early evening and deserted apart from a young Wheatear at the bottom of the cliffs.

I'll do a separate post for the coastal path itself.

In the reeds behind Abereiddy beach we saw more Linnets and a small group of birds together which I finally confirmed as Common Whitethroat, an adult and possibly three or four young ones but they didn't stay out in the open for long.

We also saw this Beetle on it's back on a path nearby, it couldn't seem to turn over so I helped it get right side up again, i'm not sure what it is though, a Dor Beetle maybe? It looked like it had little shoes on!

Though you can't tell from the photo this mushroom was almost a foot high

Elsewhere we saw quite a few Red Kites, Kestrels and Buzzard including this young one that regularly sat on a telegraph pole near where we were staying. Excuse the wonky photo it was taken from the car window!

Swallows were everywhere

We checked out Newgale beach along the coast, it was busy with people but so long there was enough space for everyone. 

Oystercatchers

This clam kept opening and closing and with a wave ended up clinging to a piece of seaweed

Mermaids Purse

The views from the garden were stunning, this was the sunset on our last evening

I've got a couple more posts to do including our day on Ramsey Island.