so much interest and photo’s , thanks folks.
Mae gen i ‘Gwyn blaen oren’ am orange tip .
Great Tatjana, this is getting more welsh into the world.
I do understand and sympathise folks, but having photographed a great spider in the wild this morning (trying to identify). images will appear occasionally (with warning). but there are not to many species so it will only be occasional.
Cheers J.P.
I myself am slightly more relaxed about these creatures now, in fact, I was tempted to share here a picture of a very impressive (I think it was about 8 cm) spider that I saw two weeks ago in Feodosia, Crimea. I’d be very curious to know if it lives in the UK and if it has a Welsh name. @henddraig, I promise I will write a very big warning above and below the picture!
Copyn alert.
Arancus marmoreas var pyramidatus - Marbled orb-weaver.
so far no Welsh name for this one.
But hopefully now lots of people know the welsh word for spider.
Ond gobeithio, mae llawer o bobl yn gwybod yr gair cymraeg am copyn rwan.
Cheers J.P.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Haha! Surely not. It’s cute with all this yellow(ish) color. 
Thanks for this, I am never confident with dictionaries and your correction makes sense.
The ducks that @dougewart posted reminded me of seeing these ducks in New Zealand. Four years ago we were there on a (Welsh choir) tour and I kept seeing these very distinctive ducks, usually as we were passing on a bus. They always seemed to be in pairs - one with a black head and one with a white head. I finally found a pair that I could photograph in a botanic garden in Christchurch. Turns out they are specific to New Zealand and are called “Paradise” ducks.
Here is the text from the website for the Abel Tasman National Park:
[quote]The paradise shelduck is New Zealand’s only shelduck, a worldwide group of large, often semi-terrestrial waterfowl that have goose-like features. Unusually for ducks, the female paradise shelduck is more eye-catching than the male; females have a pure white head and chestnut-coloured body, while males have a dark grey body and black head.
Paradise shelducks are commonly observed flying in pairs or grazing on pasture. They are very vocal birds, with males giving a characteristic ‘zonk zonk’, while females make a more shrill ‘zeek zeek’ while flying or as a warning to intruders.[/quote]
(Click on photo to see it bigger.)
Its just the name i have in a wildlife book and the species may have two names, either way they sure are nice to see.
New to me so as ever dw i’n dysgu rhywbeth newydd bod dydd.
Unfortunately, sometimes there is a tinge of sadness with wildlife finds.
This afternoon i was thrilled to find a caterpillar of the Elephant hawk moth on a path, but then noticed it looked slightly damaged (probably by a bicycle).
Lindys o Gwalchwyfyn yr helyglys - caterpillar of Elephant hawkmoth.
I’m not sure it will pupate successfully, but for now its in a box with some food.
Barf y hen wr - old mans beard, looking splendid in autumn sunshine.
Ichnewmon s.p. ar Iorwg - Ichneumon species on Ivy.
Mantell coch - Red admiral, again on iorwg - ivy, an important nectar/pollen source this time of year.
Cheers J.P.
On i dod o hyd planhigion newydd i fi heddiw - I found a plant new to me today.
Cribau’r pannwr bach - small teasel.
Madfall cyffredin heb cynffon - Common lizard without tail. (not very unusual - ddim anarferol iawn).
Cap inc carpiog - shaggy ink cap also known as the lawyer’s wig.
Gwe pry cop - spiders web.
Neidr ddefaid - slow worm.
Cheers J.P.
Well in a weeks time the lunar eclipse will have started in America though Europe will have a few hours to wait. With this in mind i have been trying to image the moon - Lleuad, with poor results, at full size a few craters can be seen but it’s far from a good photo.
Moon - Lleuad.
I’m hoping someone will do better next week, i should be in North Wales so a clear sky with some mountain silhouettes sounds good (fingers crossed).
Cheers J.P.
Good moon photos are not easy. Da iawn! What lens did you use?
28.09.2015 at 4:11 am it will be (at least here in Slovenia)
I hold this photo for great.
Here’s album of mine supermoons over last summer, but your one is better though.
Enjoy
Saw this cute creature on the path from Tresaith to Aberporth today. The locals weren’t sure if it is water vole or some other vole. Very beautiful and cuddlyin any case
I’m inclined to think that is a young water vole - Llygoden bengron y dwr ifanc.
wish i had been with you at the time.
Cheers J.P.
I’m using a bridge camera, notice the red haze at lit edge of my image, i think this is because i had to push the zoom into digital zoom area to get the sensor to focus right. I need to learn a lot about photography but never the less am quite pleased with what is a fairly cheap camera.
Tatjana, i especially liked images 5 and 6 with some thin cloud in the image giving a little mood and texture to the moon.
Yes i’m thinking exposure to such critters probably puts me more at ease with them.
(though i was not going to pick up the wasp spider of last week).
I assume also that the common lizard had lost its tail as a defense strategy at some time.
The slow worm is interesting as it was copper colour on top but people don’t often see the underside which i would describe as blue grey (llwydlas), the underside of a grass snake is ever more striking.
Lindys Bidog llwyd - Grey dagger caterpillar.
This caterpillar still seems happy feeding and wandering around it’s box, i found it on Pisgwydden - common lime and there are some fresh leaves from that tree in the box but knowing these can be found more often on other trees i put a selection of leaves in the box and the lindys seems to choose those from silver birch - Bedwen arian as favorite.
One of the other caterpillars has started spinning a cocoon this evening.
Cheers J.P.
Thank you. I wanted to catch some spooky mood despite it was Summer. I also like those with tree branches in front but now there will be no more of those next time since that tree was cut down in Spring this year and is no more.
Great, that is just the sort of image i wish to get but for some reason i can not get this camera to accept my wishes, it always goes for long exposure time to gather light. I get i nice image but it looks like evening light lever rather than dark.
I know i need DSLR with more manual control but that will have to be in the future, for now this is great at most things i wish to image.
Cheers J.P.
@ramblingjohn I have a bridge camera that I enjoyed for many, many years before moving to a DSLR. Bridge cameras take great photos (as we can clearly see from yours). The amount of zoom you can get for not a lot of money, and the ability to do macro shots, cannot be beat! I moved to a DSLR so that I could get more control of depth-of-field and a better ability to make the camera focus exactly where I wanted it to. But I will never be able to afford a lens with a really long focal length - so I kept my bridge camera for the times I really want a lot of reach. (It’s old enough now that it’s not worth selling it). Bridge cameras also have the advantage of a lot less weight and bulk. I hope you enjoy using yours for a long time.
Shooting the moon so that you can see the craters is definitely difficult, because it’s so easy to overexpose and lose all the detail. And depending on how long your exposure is, the moon can actually move a bit, which makes sharp focus a challenge. You should be very happy with that shot
Diolch iawn am beth wnes ti dweud amdana bridge camera.
bydd i yn mwynhau defnyddio camera hwn ers peth amser, dw i’n meddwl.
Thanks a lot for what you say about bridge camera.
I will enjoy using this camera for some time, i think.
Hanner lleuad.
I have just been trying to image the moon again, as it is now about half lit here more craters are appearing along the shadow line.
Cheers J.P.
Oh dear! I did know that I’m not observant, but I hadn’t realised that, although I have often picked up slow worms to move them to a safer place (off the path) I never noticed that they were a different colour underneath!!!
p.s I was going to ask how your caterpillar(s) were getting on! Thanks for the update!!
