Question: Yesterday, Janet saw a little bird with a reddish head and a bit of red on its chest. She had never seen one like it before. We are in Argyll. My bird book suggests linnet or lesser redpoll and the RSPB site seems to agree, but I get the idea both are getting rare and always were in west Scotland. Janet tried a pic, but it went behind the bird feeder it was sharing with a siskin. Do you think it was likely to be a linnet or is a lesser redpoll more common? The picture she picked from the web turned out to be an American bird, a house finch!! She now accepts that it wasn’t that!!!
p.s. we are now regularly getting 2 bullfinches at a time, but they are very hard to catch in a pic!! We are trying!! 
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Well, either sound a good choice and i must admit i would be pleased to get a decent photo of either, my winter feeder was quite successful but i need to try somewhere different next winter to get more species.
This is a common theme in my thinking, how to make this thread more interesting/useful to others, i hope people don’t mind what i’m doing because for now it’s a way to keep myself thinking and working in welsh. Having said that it’s no substitute for speaking with others (practice) which i feel woefully behind with, i will be in north wales next moth for butterflies and moths (gloynnod a gwyfynod ) course. It’s proving difficult to find nature courses with welsh speakers.
We wrote a couple of days ago about acidity/alkalinity, which leads to me aiming for some Welsh geology at some time, i have a geological map for wales (yn saesneg) which is a start but as with so much of Welsh, there is a long way to go. (it’s still interesting, and a good reason to return to the mountains when ever possible).
Cheers J.P.
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Hello J.P.
Pleasese keep the thread going. The photos are superb and a great way to think about the Welsh names even if I can’t remember them the next day.
Having moved from he countryside, where I had a good variety of birds on the feeders, to a bare town garden it has taken a while to establish even a few attendees, but this year a sparrow hawk has paid us a visit. Despite the subsequent pile of little feathers at least we must be improving the population a bit if even a top predictor chooses to visit.
Ecology courses through the medium of Welsh would be great.
Meanwhile please keep up the thread. It is inspirational!
Anne
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Hopefully. on its way!! We mentioned the little bird to a friend who lives nearby and when she got home, there it was on her feeder, which is easier to photo well than ours!! (Also, she’s a better photographer with a camera, not a phone!!) I think it’s a linnet and when I get sent the pic, I’ll put it on this site!!
Please continue ‘What’s outside’, John. It certainly inspires and helps me!! Proof : linnet = llinos!! (I hope!) 
p.s. Isn’t a butterfly ‘pilipala’?
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I love this thread John. Can’t remember a single name but the pics are amazing, you have such a talent for photography.
Now that would be a challenge - an impossible one IMO.
Given the apparent lack of nature courses, do you think you might ever be in a position to run one yourself?
@ramblingjohn I agree with 4Ruth, this is a great thread! I love seeing all your beautiful photos of nature, many of which show flora and fauna quite unlike anything here in the States. It’s interesting to see the English and Welsh names. I appreciate that you share your talents with us!
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Steady with the compliments folks, i’m not worthy.
I certainly want to keep going with what i am doing but am probably trying to run before i can walk when i say i want to make it more useful/interesting, in that i would like to be adding welsh descriptions with the species.
I don’t want to just write something in English then past it in Gtranslate (a very useful program) but word choice and grammar may be way of. (this does not mean i’m afraid of mistakes, they i expect for some time to come ).
Me run a course is a lovely idea, but for now i feel i would much prefer a patient first language speaker who was happy to correct me.
Not remembering species names is certainly a problem, i guess all the welsh is going to be like this and it will be interesting to try and assess how many species names have stuck at the end of the year, (dw i’n tybio deg o cant bydd yn dda).
Anyway, look forward to the linnet photo, and am looking forward to getting some more surprise images this week, what will appear where is never guaranteed.
Cheers J.P.
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llinos???
I am following John’s instructions again. I think it’s working!!
Now editing… it did work, hooray!! Is it a linnet, John?
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I’m no expert but i think the little black bib bellow it’s beak make this a redpoll (Llinos bengoch leiaf).
I notice it appears to have a ring on its right leg.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers J.P.
Redpoll! Lucky you.
This shows our redpoll with, I think, a siskin. Based on size, does that mean the redpoll is ‘lesser’ rather than ‘mealy’??
p.s. Janet was thrilled to hear that she was right about the similarilty to the US house finch!!!
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two things, first of all JP, are you happy to add our own photo’s from time to time and ask for names?
Second, I often talk to my Ffrindiath about the birds in the garden. One of last nights subject was asgell fraith and eurbinc that we have been seeing lately…! Sadly, I have not photographs to add… 
PS, I love this thread too!
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More than happy to see other peoples photo’s, i fact i would be thrilled if more people joined in, they have a habit of getting photo’s of species i have not (the redpoll being one ) and this is great, if i can identify i will , of course more participants means more chance of identity.
Now if your Ffrindiath lived in Newbury i suspect they would tire of my questions on a stroll around the countryside, sounds great.
I have to say i’m having a great time with this new camera, it has given my old eyes a new lease of life as i can photo in situe then view images on large screen, try to identify from welsh book initially, reverting to large English books when necessary.
I should be in North Wales in four weeks time, so some really welsh images to post, The butterfly/moth course is with a brilliant (English) tutor but the staff are bilingual and we go to lots of welsh places, great to try and get some ymarfer.
The question about which Redpoll is another area where i’m not expert and i’m a bit of a lumper when it comes to species, ( i will write a post about the problem with species some time), the trip to north Wales is an example, one day we will go to the great orme, here it is well know there is a colony of Grayling butterfly, they are consistently different to Graylings i would see here, but are they a different species, not really it’s just isolation has lead to them evolving slightly differently, (i should add this is a route to speciation) but if these were to be joined up with another area of grayling the difference would breed out in a few seasons.
This morning has been nicely interesting.
Adain sidan - lacewing.
Glesyn bach - small blue.
Gweirloyn y glaw - Ringlet.
Yr ymerawdwr - Emperor (benywaidd) - Emperor dragonfly (female) busy egg laying.
Click on image to enlarge, those wings really are transparent.
Should be out late tonight setting moth trap in freinds garden so early start tomorrow with hopefully something interesting to see.
Cheers J.P.
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Not the best of photo’s today.
Pair of scarlet tiger moths exchanging DNA.
Chwimwyfyn rhithiol - Ghost moth (gwrywaidd - male).
Shrill carder bee, sorry that’s two today i have no welsh name for.
Gwennol gyda cyw - swallow with chicks (taken standing on a tractor in a barn).
Out after dark tonight on last Nightjar (Troellwr mawr) survey.
Cheers J.P.
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continual developments, tonight i got near some people who know, and yes those are bee orchids (Tegeirian y wenynen) appearing on the common, i found one more today.
The shrill carder bee in the previous post (if it is a shrill carder bee) has become somewhat rare in England over the last hundred years though it is still strong in population in south wales so more expert advice needed on this find.
And sometimes unbelievable luck can be a pretty poor photograph.
Troellwr mawr - Nightjar. yep silhouette of oak tree and the nightjar sitting in it, taken at night so it looks black and white, am i pleased.
Cheers J.P.
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Woweee! Aren’t these really, really rare?
I best be brief and say it would be wrong to suggest they are really rare but then again not common.
Teiger y benfelen (lindys) - the cinnabar (caterpillar).
These are interesting as like here they are often found on Ragwort (Llysiau’r gingroen) which is poisonous (to many herbivores), the caterpillar can not break down the poison chemically so instead stores it in side pouches which means the caterpillar is poisonous to predators and hence can be brightly coloured as a warning and enjoy being left alone, like wise the moth is poisonous and emerges black and red, again obvious for predators to see, but they know to leave it alone.
Gweirloyn y ddol - meadow brown feeding on Thistle (ysgallen).
Sgimiwr llinell ddu (gwrywaidd) - Black lined skimmer (male).
Copyn cranc - Crab spider s.p.
Cleddlys canghennog - Branched bur reed.
Cheers J.P.
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Click on image for full size, sorry no welsh name for the larvae but the plant is (Y bengaled ), common knapweed. Note i put larvae not caterpillar because i think looking closely this has feet all along it’s length so is likely a sawfly larvae, I only have welsh name for one sawfly and this isn’t it.
I hope it’s interesting as per the photo it is almost transparent (as are some caterpillars) this can lead to the difficulty in identification where they look the colour of what they have been eating.
Tegeirian bera - Pyramidal orchid.
Cheers J.P.
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