Lucky day here today!
Petrisen goesgoch - red legged partridge.
We were talking at the weekend about how shy they are; this was an early morning treat.
Red-tailed bumble bee (thanks, @ramblingjohn) - cacynen dingoch on blue Honesty.
A Google suggests that the little ‘beads’ just visible by the head & under the wing are sadly parasitic mites; it didn’t seem to be too bothered by them.
John, you sound just like someone I’ve heard on TV, but I’m not sure who, unless it’s the guy in Anita who is her intended’s sidekick? 
p.s. everyone here says I was thinking of lizards somewhere else as the ones at our marsh are not green. So, It was either in the Venice area or sand dunes between Horton and Port Eynon, Gower!
Well if all the people on this forum who like you, press like on the post, that will be over one thousand and one.
Dw i’n cytuno efoch di.
Thanks for the correspondence on software, you said many useful things and i now realise i can get an external microphone for camera.
Excellent.
The parasites on bumble bees are something to disscuss sometime, (they can over burden the bee), but nature is always more than just what we see, i will do a long post sometime (when i get photo’s) of those on dung beetles.
That sounds right, and was the reason i highlighted the Green lizards which i have yet to photograph.
Oh, well, Anita’s sidekick i can live with (i always think i sound like a drain).
Cheers J.P.
That’s what I call an overstatement! But - thank you 
It’s very warm and lovely here now, and the insects and birds have returned after the long winter, so probably I will be able to thank you with a photo of something beautiful/interesting later on!
A cross between “Iolo Williams” & David Attenbrough I’d say 
A couple of sickly Titŵod Mawr heddiw.
Im not sure if this one is winking or only has one eye!
This one looks bedraggled. I’m wondering if it has the same or a similar mite to the Titw Tomos Las that @ramblingjohn posted a wee while ago.
Not very upbeat I’m afraid so I’m watching this space for a feel good photo from @seren to cheer me up.
I’m not sure about a certain cause of the tatty looking birds, it’s a choice between, they have survived winter, they may be getting new feathers, there are some diseases about, and it’s spring so fighting over territories/mates is quite popular.
Spring is being it’s temperamental norm, with lot’s of showers today, and brief moments of sunshine hinting at the wonders to come.
Heddiw.
http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/e_level2.shtml?programme_id=526201940
Rhybudd: mae’r rhaglen hon yn cynnwys ymlusgiaid.
Warning: this programme contains reptiles.
Cheers J.P.
Sorry, John! Anita is possibly to marry Berwyn, who has a skinny sidekick. I can’t recall name of character or actor, but it was, I think, his voice, not the actor who plays Berwyn!
p.s. Neither of you sounds like a drain!!
re-bedraggled birds, At some stage they are making nests and mating, which takes effort, laying eggs and sitting or feeding her at home, feeding demanding infants, and then, I think, shedding one lot of feathers and growing another! Now, I’d guess its the first of those after a long, cold, wet winter. Not surprising if a few are bedraggled. Add to that wiggling out of the talons of a hawk, bashing into a window, nearly getting zapped by a cat and its a miracle they aren’t all pretty bedraggled!! The extreme puffiness is what worries me as I think that is a sickness!
Heddiw (bwrw glaw yn aml (yn rhy aml) dipyn o haulwen waithiau).
Masarnen fach - Field maple (blagur lliwgar - colourful buds).
Pryf y tail - Yellow dung fly (they appear is if from nowhere as soon as the sun appears, note again Halteres just behind and below the wings).
Cheers J.P.
Attempting to send:
The other birds had flown! Only nicos left!
Local madfall (lizard), sort of greenish??? 
Baban bach!! Six inches. This and the madfall are old pics!!
Fantastic pictures The madfall is lovely!
Dw i’n cytuno gyda seren. post more @henddraig
All i have so far today are some dull (before sun was up) photo’s of our overnight moth trapping.
Crynwr gothig - Hebrew character.
Crywr dau smotyn - twin spotted quaker.
Seraff llwyd - Early tooth striped.
Rhisglyn y derw - Oak beauty.
Llwydyn y gwyddfid - Early grey.
Cheers J.P.
Not dull at all - they are beauties! Unfortunately, we don’t get all these lovely moths in the city, but I want to grow a butterfly at home this year (was inspired by your experiments).
No , the moths were not dull (just the morning). i look forward to photo’s of your butterflies (home grown or wild).
And now for something a bit different outside.
I have just returned from an astronomy evening where amongst other things i hear about a three day
astronomy and music festival in Builth wells August 12th.
solarsphere is its name (check on net for details).
Also firstly this may be not new to you (i don’t have a tv so don’t know how well it was reported).
Quite a few people now have light sensitive (activated) cameras pointing at the sky every night for those moments when (yes we had a meteor/fire ball over England).
03:16:54 UT on Thursday 2016 March 17., and apparently we were lucky in that.
The meteor was traveling really fast and initially lit up at about 60 km high in the rarefied atmosphere above the Devon coast.
Burst half way down and by around 14 km up had turned to dust over Oxford.
Now of course, all of this i very interesting to me, but given the choice between this or a cave in Slovenia, noooooooooooooo contest, @tatjana, @margaretnock keep on enjoying.
Cheers J.P.
Heddiw.
Ysgallen y gors - Marsh thistle. (now the leaves are turning upwards as central stem grows).
Draenen wen - Hawthorn (blagur yn datblygi ar ben yr braichiau - buds are developing at the end of branches, mae cen a mwsogl yn tyfu ar yr braichiau hefyd - lichen and moss growing on the braches as well.).
Cacynen dingoch - Red tailed bumble bee (oedd hi’n hapus i eistedd ar fy llaw - she was happy to sit on my hand).
To duplicate what @pippapritchard found/noticed.
Cheers J.P.
Great pictures @ramblingjohn. Do you know if these parasites live on other bees or is the red tailed bumble bee their preferred ‘host’?
This is a large question with an incomplete answer.
Parasite: well some people see them as a parasite on the bees, i would think they are kind of species specific as the bees won’t go in each others nests.
Possibly odd fact of the day: i have heard of people putting bumble bees into a glass of water (with a piece of cork to hang onto) and sweeping the parasites of using an artists paint brush.
Parasite? (have i used the word incorrectly). (there is a different word which i don’t remember).
There is a counter argument, that these louse live on the nest detritus and may well keep it bee friendly by consuming the waste around or from the adults and young. So they are on the bee’s to get from nest to nest and have no wish to harm the bee itself.
Thus in this scenario, the lice are living on the queen which has over wintered and will live in it’s new nest then leave attached to all bees that grow in that nest.
Now one idea that comes to mind, is that any lice left behind in old nests, would keep that environment clean and attractive to other bees that may explore the site, and just maybe this way they would in fact jump species as it’s the nests that are important to their life cycle, the bee just being a vector.
Comparison evidence: (so much we don’t know.
The mites on dung beetles seem to have been proven to travel on the beetles and are of benefit to them, not a parasite. (it’s an interesting subject).
The mites etc on birds seem to be proven as parasites that live on the birds and use the nest to transfer to next generation (evolutionary, the flat flies on birds are interesting in way they have become a shape that fits between rows of feathers, so don’t look to much like a house fly and some have secondarily lost their wings).
Felly, mae’n ddrw gen i, dydy ddim yn bosib i mi rhoi ateb sydd yn holl wir (not sure if that is right but i’m trying).
Truth to tell, i just enjoyed the bee sitting on my hand for while, it always gives one time to reflect on the marvel that is nature.
Cheers J.P.
You definitely have a vocation as a scientist JP!
No JP, you’re absolutely correct. Maybe you were thinking of ectoparasite which would be more specific? They’re certainly not a parasitoid as the latter would be something like the wasp which lays its eggs inside the host and eventually kills it. A parasite wouldn’t necessarily cause damage to the host and, if an infestation of parasites happens to kill its host it’s really an accident.
Hwyl
John
We have lashings of both! There is so much lichen on one of our rowan tress. it looks as if it is in leaf from a distance!!
Parasites: Isn’t it true that red mites of some kind are credited with helping to wipe out hives of honey bees? It isn’t in the interests of a parasite to kill its host, but it doesn’t mind if it has moved on in the meantime!! Lets face it, bacteria and viruses could be defined at parasites and they spread from person to person, so their species continues, even if an individual dies! The same goes for most larger parasites.
The best kind of guest/host relationship is one mutually beneficial like cleaner wrasse on sharks. The ‘parasites’ on the bumble bees may actually be more like that, from what you say!! There is a word for it and my old age has whipped it from my mind! It will come back in about an hour when I’m doing something else!
Yes indeed, and they often are, as microparasites while macroparasites are ones such as these which you can see with the aid of a hand lens or naked eye.
Mutualism or maybe mutual symbiosis I guess must be the word you’re looking for?
