Now this afternoon the weather improved nicely.
I happened upon an area of ivy which was starting to flower. (Iorwg sydd yn dechrau blodau)
there was an occasional honey bee (Gwenyn fel) feeding on it and other species.
Picwnen - wasp.
Next i thought momentarily i had spotted a hornet (Picwnen goch) feeding but i needed to look cafefully (gwilio’n ofalus).
Pryf s.p. - fly species. (the colour is so like a hornet).
It became obvious this area was alive with bee mimics and i had quite the time photographing them.
Pryf s.p. - fly species.
Pryf s.p. - fly species.
This is just a small selection and i guess i need more specialist books sometime.
Its more than possible that nobody is certain how many species of these there are.
So there we are, obviously mimicking bees/wasps is a very popular evolutionary move.
And once again i’m reminded that knowledge mountain is a huge expanse of which we can only wander a small part, still we can enjoy part of it and continue to learn in welsh if we choose, the challenge continues.
I read a wonderful book last year, The fly trap" by the entomologist Fredrik Sjoberg. It’s a autobiography, and there’s a lot of information about the Syrphidae (hoverflies). I was very fascinated by it, but I’d never seen such a fly before your post. They’re really lovely. They’re called “журчалки” ( purling flies) in Russian, because it is said that they make a very peculiar purling noise when flying. Did you perchance happen to notice what noise they make? I’ve always been very curious to find out)
Oh, and the carpiog gwar melyn is such a beauty:)
Spotted this creature this morning hanging onto the top of the rabbit run in our garden. I think its the caterpillar (lindysyn) of the Poplar Hawkmoth / Laothoe populi or gwalchwyfyn y poplys. What you you think @ramblingjohn? I fear for the poor creature as there are bound to be some hungry birds around. Not sure why this one thought that the rabbit run was a suitable perch - it’s about four foot off the ground and not a poplar tree in sight! Wel, mae pawb yn gwneud camgymeriadau!
The ones that used to be attracted to my tomato flowers made a sort of high pitched pzzzz sound!!!
I really have forgotten my Russian alphabet Would the first letter be ‘shch’ in English and the 4th letter ‘ch’ as in English ‘chick’?
Oh, thank you! I’ve never seen such a fly and I was curious whether it lives up to its name and really makes a purling sound.
The first letter is read as a French “j” (as in je, jeux) or as the combination “si” in the English word television. And the 4th one is ch, you’re right. It should be read as [jurʧalka] (in the International phonetic alphabet).
Boy, do Russian words look scary written with Latin characters
You will see a bad pic here.
I hoped to show how small the pond is, which is why I couldn’t have a native white water lily but had to have a dwarf one, but that pic was too bad and too big to send. Also, our poor lilis dlos are so late, most of the leaves are still under the surface!!
This is the flower I see when I hear ‘lilis dlos’ or ‘lilis gwynion’
Well, purling is a fairly good description, in english i think i would describe their sound as varying between a hummmmmm and buzzzzzz. This probably varies between species due to wing shape and speed. Which leads to the idea of another experiment someone could do with sound equipment on season, comparing sound with species. Oh dear, this Welsh course is expanding my ways of enjoying / admiring wildlife. Diolch am dy cwestiwn di, byddai’n drio defnydd mwy o’r cymraeg dros amser.
Da iawn Jon, i have been looking for these over the last couple of weeks (and failed).
I agree with gwalchwyfyn y poplys, I suspect you specimen is full grown and had come down from where it had been feeding to look for somewhere (in the ground) to pupate. There are quite a few species that do this so keep a lookout folks over the next six weeks (i once found one walking along a kerb beside the pavement).
Thats not such a bad picture, a plant expert could identify some of the other plants in there, but i don’t know them (mae drew gen i).
I really like seeing the different flora and fauna on your side of the world. The American Goldfinch is a totally different looking bird! I don’t see them in my yard very often, so I don’t think I have any photos.
Oh diolch!! Both pics are the ones I would have posted of ‘our’ heron and one of ‘our’ nicos if we’d managed to get decent pics!! No promises, but I’m hoping to be able to post a sparrow hawk soon!!!
Nice creyr pic. I should get some of mine together. I have about 5 species or so as well as some sand-hill cranes. Including a Little Blue Heron as well as the Great Blue Heron.
cwlwm y coed - Black bryony.
This plant caused a bit of head scratching yesterday, as looked similar to woody nightshade, but somehow didn’t quite fit, (though i had no definite alternative to suggest), anyway after perusing several books today i think i now have put the correct ID (remember i’m not perfect so all suggestions accepted with a view to improving my knowledge).
[quote=“AnnaC, post:550, topic:971”]
The American Goldfinch is a totally different looking bird! I don’t see them in my yard very often, so I don’t think I have any photos.[/quote]
We get lots of goldfinches here. I’ll try to get a picture sometime (though it won’t be near as good as John’s!)
[quote=“ramblingjohn, post:553, topic:971”]
Aeron Ysgawen - Elder berries.[/quote]
Yep, those are elderberries. We get them in hedgerows and the like a lot here. Elderberry pie is really good, as is elderberry wine, but getting all the little berries off the head can be a real chore!
Here are some of my pics that I mentioned earlier.
Herons and Egrets are the same family of birds. Egrets usually are white with large plumes during mating season. They were hunted to near extinction for their plumes which were popular for hats around the turn of the 20th century. They are water birds. They wade in shallow waters and feed on fish. The exception is the Cattle Egret which is found in pastures.
John, ‘our’ heron looked like yours, but it wasn’t enormous. I mean our wild garden isn’t big enough for a really big bird to flutter about in!! So is there a smaller heron it could have been? Or am I getting a false sense of size in your picture and mention of ‘great’ heron?
I’m afraid Creyr glas are rather well known around here for clearing small ponds.
so i would expect it is the same species.
mae nhw yn wych iawn.
And it’s most intersting you have the same species as here (plus others).
Creyr bach (Little egret) appeared in this country some years ago (i posted a photo on Jan 1st) and seem to have settled in nicely with fairly good numbers now breeding here each year.
I don’t know if the great white egret is the same species as has been appearing here occasionally becoming more frequently, even i have seen one on a few occasions around here but i don’t know if they are breeding in this country yet.
Cattle egret, again i don’t know if they are the same species but cattle egret have been photographed in Cornwall/Devon, so not a huge distance from me though i have not seen one, of course that location puts them very near south Wales.
There is one other species now nesting here that i have not seen yet but will reveal when i get a photo. (so many things that just might appear in front of the camera any day).
A tra dan ni’n siarad am peth sydd yn hedfan, un pryf arall.
Mesembrina meridiana, yep Latin name i’m afraid, apparently sometimes called a noon fly in Saesneg, felly mae’n bosib i dweud, pryf hanner dydd. (click image for full size).
I went back and looked at that pic. It doesn’t match anything in my Florida books. It’s very similar to the Snowy Egret except it has no yellow on the beak.
There is a rare mutation of the the Great Blue Heron that is white. Best way to distinguish is the leg color. Black is the Egret, yellow is the Heron. The Egret also has a slimmer body.
Thanks Craig , this is all very interesting and prompted me to look up the great white egret’s seen here. It seems they are the same Ardea alba, apparently a pair did nest here in 2012 but this has yet to become an annual event. As you say leg colour is different to Creyr glas, and beak colour is different to Creyr bach. (now as ever is the question, when will i get a photo) .
John, bach, you said this about a fly!!! The fly on my screen is about 10 cm across!! I refuse to believe that you really have giant flies in Oxford!!!
