Adam has now migrated to RSPB Ynys-hir, along with fellow intern Tom, to start their second half of the internship. A huge thanks goes to both of them for their hard work throughout the last 6 months. With regards this blog, thanks has to go to Adam for his fantastically informative weekly posts which is going to be hard to continue to such a standard! Both interns got stuck right in to reserve work from monitoring on the moors to leading walks. They also came up with their own projects, Adam set up bat surveys and a fruitful butterfly transect but he wasn’t up for giving one of the horses a lift off the hill!
Adam and friend
Tom created a scale model Solar System trail. The Solar System trail was completed at the end of August and can be viewed along the Green Trail as you walk along the path to the waterfall at the top end of the lake. With each planet there is a brief description along with a few interesting facts, including how far away the nearest star would be at the scale used.
Solar System trail
As Adam mentioned in his final post, he managed to see 105 species of bird on the reserve during his 6 months here. There has been a friendly rivalry between Adam and myself, and having arrived a month later I have been struggling to catch up with Adam. However, today (14th) I found my 105th species…… a MOORHEN (a rare bird at Lake Vyrnwy!). With 2 weeks of my stay remaining will I manage to beat Adam???
Another local rarity was found off the dam on the 4th, an immature Shelduck which only stayed the one day (I was on holiday so missed it!). In the past week the lake has had: 5 Little Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck, 10 Teal, a Great Crested Grebe and 240 Lesser Black-backed Gulls came in to roost on the 7th between 7-8pm. Kingfishers continue to be seen around the lake including below the dam, along Green Trail and bottom of Dinas Mawydd road. 2 Dippers were seen below the dam on the 12th and Chiffchaffs have started to sing again, heard at several locations around the reserve. The butterfly transect was done this week but, despite the glorious weather, only 5 butterflies were recorded. A few dragonflies were still about with Black Darters and a couple of Brown Hawkers being the more obvious ones.
Brown Hawker ovipositing in small pond
While working around the reserve there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of Fungi about. Autumn is a great time of year to get out and about to see the amazing colours and shapes of Fungi, though remember some are poisoness and can be deadly!! One interesting looking Fungi is this Coral Fungi which was found along the butterfly transect and is only a couple of centimetres high. If anyone happens to know what species of Fungi this is it would be great to hear from you (comment here, facebook, twitter or email).
Coral Fungi - But which one?
Macrolepidoptera of the Week
The recent cold nights have put us off trying to use the moth trap. However it was put out on the 13th due to a slightly milder forecast and produced a few interesting moths including Pink-barred Sallow and Green-brindled Crescent. But, for me anyway, Macro-Lepidoptera of the Week goes to the Black Rustic. Yes I know its black, but I am always amazed by just how black it is. With its charcoal sheen and flecks of gold poking through I think this is an incredible looking moth and proves they don’t need vibrant colours to stand out.
Regards,
Gavin