Above i have put the soundfile transcription to the best of my ability,
that means plenty of gess work. definitely something to return to when i improve.
Cheers J.P.
Minus 4 outside this morning and we had at least 50 chaffinches feeding at our feeders. We often have coal tits. This summer we saw more long-talied tits than ever before. We used to have a very clever hooded crow who could fly up into our roofed bird-table, grip the edge and eat/take food from the table. None of the others could manage this. He/she used to come along with the young when they first fledged and they would sit in a row (of two) at the back of the garden with the other parent while ‘our’ hoodie came for food and ferried it from bird-table to offspring!! I don’t know how ‘our’ hoodie came to die, but this year ‘a’ hoodie kept trying to do what that one did, so maybe it’s son or daughter!! Jackie
Yesterday in my local wood I found a willow tree adorned with amber jelly fungus (ffwng jeli ambr?), Exidia recisa. It looked like the tree was decorated for Christmas. Today I returned with a camera and found them frozen solid. So what do they call these in Welsh?
Henddraig: it was minus a few numbers here and certainly chilly ears standing still in the woods hoping for something new at my feeding station (nothing new but nice enough watching the regulars).
I remember seeing hooded crows near loch ness a few years ago and was thrilled as they don’t appear around here, though strangely there is a crow at the local wildlife center with some white feathers in it’s wings.
Polly: the species you quote isn’t in a lot of fungus books but is common this time of year on willow, a close relative Exidia glandulosa -latin/ Witches butter - saesneg, is Ymenyn y wrach - cymraeg.
If you are the Polly i met on April bootcamp last year, then this April is going to be fun as we continue to increase Welsh wildlife.
Cheers J.P.
hi John, yes the same Polly, your close ups of the birds are impressive, my pictures of things that run or fly away are not up to much. I’m not far enough north, or north west, to see the hooded crows that henddraig sees. But hopefully I’ll see you in April at bootcamp.
I feel quite ashamed. I knew the choughs(spelling?) we had on Gower were rare, but I hadn’t realised that hoodies were so geographically confined… just that we hadn’t had them on Gower!! They are very, very common here, but I’m not sure where they nest, just someplace further up the hill in the trees. We have a sparrow hawk who comes in the summer to try to grab a quick meal from those feeding around our table. He/she sits on top of the table roof or the fence post nearest the table and is surprised no little birds come back!! I do miss the yellowhammers here!! Jackie
Talking of Sparrow Hawks, here’s one that took a tit in our garden last spring. It left only a collection of tiny blue feathers.
Gwalch glas (blue hawk) is the Welsh.
The year here ends with blue skies and frost easing.
Distant red kites - Barcud coch.
Carrion crow - Bran dyddyn.
This is the one with white feathers in it’s wings, a search of the net has reports of such phenomena elsewhere in the country.
Great crested grebe - Gwyach fawr gopog.
Cheers J.P.
2 Likes
Bran goesgoch Cernyweg
2 Likes
Year end part 2. (the Bran goesgoch is something i hope to see again this (next) year).
Now some of the lakes around here were still partly frozen, this led to the sight of ducks apparently walking on water.
Hwyaden gwyllt (gwrywaidd a benywaidd)- Mallard (male and female).
Meanwhile cormorants were sitting in the trees.
Mulfran - Cormorant (probably feeling hungry because of frozen water).
Where open water had appeared some birds were nearer than normal.
Hwyaden bengoch (benywaidd) - Pochard (female).
Hwyaden gopog (gwrywaidd) - Tufted duck (male).
Felt guilty as i had not taken any food for them.
Cheers J.P.
2 Likes
Eithin - Gorse.
Blwyddyn newydd dda i bawb, dechrau lliwgar gyda eithin yn ei flodau.
gobeithio bydd i’n gallu ddelwedd llawer o bethau diddorol drwy gydol y flwyddyn.
Cheers J.P.
2 Likes
Don’t know if you’ve heard this broadcast with Iolo Williams and Twm Elias, John?
In January 2014, a storm tore through the valley of Plas Tan y Bwlch Maentwrog, Gwynedd.
This was the strongest winds to hit the valley for a few years, much stronger than in most parts of Wales.…
Thanks Kim, i had not heard of the broadcast, when i was there in July most of the fallen trees had been cleared, so a rather large bare (ish) patch. I expect this July all will be green and the long term re-growth will be under way.
What i have just found out is that winter watch will be on the BBC from 19-22 January.
Cheers J.P.
Thank you very much for this Stuart!! Sorry, I missed it when you first put it on! I have had some broadband problems and moving up and down the site tended to go in fits and leaps!! You will find this hard to believe (I did and I was there!!!) but one of these landed on a wall in my back yard about 8ft from my back door once!! (That was on Gower). Where did you take the picture?
from Jackie
1 Like
I didn’t actually. Whoops, is it just supposed to be things you’ve done yourself?
oedd y lun yn iawn, paid poeni amdani.
Today was lucky but with a piece of reed in the way. (that’s nature).
water vole - Llygoden bengron y dwr.
They just are not common any more so such a view is lucky.
Cheers J.P.
1 Like
Ffwng clust - cymraeg
Jew’s ear - saesneg (it has a religious story attributed to it and it’s host tree).
Ffwng clust underside.
This fungus likes Elder (ysgawen) but can be found on other hardwoods occasionally.
note beside the fungus the tree is already putting out new shoots (blagur).
Ivy - saesneg.
Iorwg - cymraeg.
This is still in the process of ripening berries (aeron), which are so important to get some birds through the winter. There are not many other kinds of berry left which makes ivy vital (hollbwysig).
Cheers J.P.
1 Like
Well Kim, i had a problem (probably me) with lose of sound on that link after four minutes,
Now Galwad cynner has come up with probably the same sound file.
This worked fine and is downloadable (it sure would be a tough transcription), i will listen to it a couple more times.
Group of naturalist discussing the patch of flattened trees at plas tan y bwlch, they even use some Latin.
The cause is given as a great storm which is fair enough, but from what i could see last summer, there is a large patch of trees flattened in an irregular manner, either side of that area all the trees look fine as does the woodland on the opposite side of the valley, so i’m tempted to think this patch is the result of a micro burst.
Anyway the program mentions animals, birds, insects, lichen, fungus, algae, well just about every thing that will respond to the change in environment, a lady on the program even mentions exo mycorrhizal fungi, then near the end even chemistry gets a mention, this was one talented group.
Cheers J.P.
Snowdrop - Eirlys. yep, it’s an early spring by the looks of things as many are now reporting eirlys in flower.
Today’s bit of luck was spotting these on a fallen silver birch - Bedwen arian.
It’s a slime mold and i’m hoping it’s a species i haven’t seen for a couple of years (they should soon ripen).
The direct translation of slime mold seems to be Llysnafedd llwydni, but whether that ever gets used in Wales i don’t know (so many questions next time i get there.
1 Like
My favourite flower (Perce-neige yn Ffrangeg) not least 'cos my mum was Eirlys Mair Jones. When I wanted to wind her up, I used to call her “Snowdrop Mary” 
1 Like