What's outside

Gwych John, fel arfer. I’m wondering why “gwynt”, and whether it has its usual meaning of “wind” here, or some secondary meaning.

In the south in particular, gwynt also means a smell, and gwynto is to smell. No idea if any of that is applicable in this case, though.

Anemone also refers to wind

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Yes. Round here and Southwards we might well say - “Mmmm - dyna gwynt ffein” as we passed a chip shop. :smile:

Thanks for the interest and comments. I too had wondered about the name, it was a windy day but then i wondered about herbal remedies, but that’s just me thinking.

As an aside, i do show some interest in these plants as there is a small fungus that only grows on their last years root, like so many things, i have never found it.

Cheers J.P.

It turned into quite the day after not a lot at my woodland feeder,

The Gwiber was just emerging no doubt in the hope of some warming sun and so was facing me.

I put this on the forum as it shows nicely the red eye with vertical slit (which is normal).

At a nearby lake there was a coot (cwtiar) sitting on it’s nest.

Cwtiar ar nyth - coot on nest.

Around the lake i also came across some flowers.

Carn yr ebol - Colt’s foot, slightly unusual plant as its one of those that flowers before developing leaves.

Now for the last couple of months, i have on occasion seen bull finches but could never get close enough for a photo, so imagine my surprise when one suddenly appeared at waters edge.

Coch y berllan - Bull finch (male), i couldn’t be sure what it was searching for on the waters edge, but from the photo’s it’s obviously collecting the contents of Alder catkins.

To round the day of the first ducklings of the year i have seen.

Cyw hwyad - ducklings.

With the forecast of a gradual improvement in temperature and possible sunshine i’m hopping this week is going to rush us into spring.

Cheers J.P.

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Roedd yr haul yn gwenu yn gynnar heddiw.
The sun was smiling early today, and this brought out the butterflies that over winter as adults.
Hibernate - gaeaf cysgu.

Mantell paun - peacock.

Dau trilliw bach - two small tortoiseshells.

Mantell garpiog adenydd ar gau - Comma wings closed.

Mantell garpiong adenydd agored - Comma wings open.

(click on images for larger version).

Cheers J.P.

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Verpa conica (no welsh name i know of).
This is a member of the morel family, morels seem to be second to truffles in the culinary world.
I have been lucky in the past to find this one place to see them, in the encyclopedia of fungi they are classed as rare with the image it contains from Abergavenny.

Llygad y dydd - Daisy.

A common weed on many lawns but oh so pretty.

Cheers J.P.

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Daisy = Day’s eye?

Thanks Rob, i’m finding a lot of welsh wildlife contains useful words.

Dant y Llew - (Lions teeth) , Dandelion.

Cheers J.P.

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Dandelion supposedly comes from the French Dent de lion (Dant y Llew) but, strangely the french for dandelion is “pissenlit” (piss the bed) because it is a well-known diuretic. :smile:

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Just possibly they knew Norman French & didn’t know original British, so jumped to conclusions!! (Or could it come from Latin? I’ve forgotten the Latin for lion and tooth!!)

Think constellations: Leo the lion. (Wikipedia tells me the genitive is leonis).

Tooth is apprently “dens”, genitive “dentis” (which I think is pretty cool - just add a “t” for the related English word). "I have an appointment with my ‘of tooth’ next week. "

Thanks for the interest folks, looking at the dandelion i wonder it wasn’t called the lions mane.

Buwch goch 7 smotyn - 7 spot ladybird.

Cheers J.P.

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I hope that you have notified Springwatch about the 7-spotter John!

Hwyl,

Stu

I can see you have been paying attention Stu, i report my finds to a local wildlife group which records many peoples finds for national data sets. The biggest concern at the moment is no more snakes, i’m looking forward to meeting the local expert who will know more than me.

Clychau’r gog - blue bells. (now starting to flower here, so soon expect to see woods carpeted with them).

Gwenynen gribog - common carder bee (i think).

Take the ID with caution, there are a lot of small bee’s.
I was lucky to spot this bee land on a plant beside me and noticed how loaded with pollen it was,
it looked tired so i picked it up for a photo and it sat quite happily on my finger, it is small, hopefully my thumb nail gives a sense of scale.

A crop from the original image, showing a bit more detail of pollen load and notice pollen on upper thorax hairs which shows how this is pollinating other plants (of the same species).

Paill - pollen.
Peillio - pollinate.

Cheers J.P.

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Your comment about reporting finds was nicely timely Stu as i received a PM about when swallows are arriving and this got me thinking maybe people would find information on what can be seen near them would be useful.
So for birds (goingbirding .co.uk) provides a county listing for the country of what has been seen where updated daily.
This wonderful weather seems to have the spring migration moving nicely, enjoy.

Cheers J.P.

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Derwen - Oak.

Cerddinen - Rowan.

Onnen - Ash.

New leaves are appearing on deciduous trees now. Many larvae and eggs of butterflies and moths will have over wintered on these ready for this moment when their food supply appears. It won’t be long before caterpillars big enough to see can be found quite easily amongst foliage. Of course many birds will be sitting on eggs ready to hatch and make use of the caterpillars as food for their young. And so the cycle of life continues diddorol iawn.

Mae dail newydd yn ymddangos ar goed collddail yn rwan. Bydd llawer o larfae ac wyau o gloynnod byw a gwyfynod wedi cadw dros y gaeaf ar y rhain yn barod ar gyfer hyn o bryd pan fydd eu cyflenwad bwyd yn ymddangos. Ni fydd yn hir cyn y gall lindys ddigon mawr i weld i’w gweld yn eithaf rhwydd ymysg dail. Wrth gwrs, bydd llawer o adar yn eistedd ar wyau yn barod i ddeor a gwneud defnydd o’r lindys fel bwyd ar gyfer eu ifanc. Ac felly mae’r cylch o fywyd yn parhau diddorol Iawn.

Cheers J.P.

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Irish madra (pl. madraí [madri]) is dog.
“Sionnach” is fox, not sure if it is connected to “llwynog”, but does sound quite similar.

Looking up with zoom its possible to see bird on it’s nest, i’m not certain whether this is a black bird or thrush (the answer may happen in time).


Madfall ddwr gribog - Great crested newt.
These go motionless when uncovered so are real easy to handle/photograph then returned unharmed to their hide away.

Gwlithen fannog - Leopard slug.

Neidr filtroed y coed - Millipede.

Cheers J.P.

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