The Juvenile Birder

Dragonfly Hunt! We arrived at 10:30am to meet the kind Eddie Urbanski in order for him to tour us round his patch. Once we arrived had arrived at his patch, which was Cors Geirch NNR, the first thing I spotted was a Painted Lady , followed by a moth which Kevin (Eddie's friend) identified as a Straw Dot . We then started wading through a marshy bit of the site and almost immediately, Eddie pointed out a male Keeled Skimmer . Unfortunately, it flew away instead of landing for a record shot, but little did I know, that this would be one of many to be seen that day. We continued walking through the marsh when Kevin said he had a Bog Hoverfly. I searched the area he saw it in and spotted a male Keeled Skimmer sitting right in front of me, waiting to be photographed. We then walked through a dryer area of the wetland where Kevin pointed out a Bog Hoverfly ( Sericomyia Silentis )   nectaring right besides us, allowing for a perfect record shot. We then started searching the pony dung in ...

Welsh Mountaineering! We arrived at the Great Orme at around 7:30am with Zak Spaull in hopes of seeing some rare butterflies. Firstly, we walked along Marine Drive, being guided by Zak, to try and find a rare orchid. As soon as we reached the spot, we noticed many of them marked by red flags. They were Dark Red Helleborines . Since it was a bit early for them, none of them were fully flowering, except for this one plant. We then walked further up Marine Drive to see a plant endemic to the Orme. It was the  Wild Cotoneaster . There were six individual plants located on the Orme, and this was one of them. They were special, but not beautiful. Zak then pointed out another plant next to the Wild Cotoneaster. We both took a photo of it and Zak later told us it was a Welsh Hawkweed , one of the many rare hawkweeds found on the Orme. Whilst looking at the plants, we noticed many Choughs , including four that landed right next to us! We also found our target butterfly, the Silver-stud...

Born Naturalist Day 1 We arrived at Cwrt Farm at around 9:00am, and immediately started loading our bags onto the truck. After we had finished, we made our way down to Porth Meudwy and along the way, we noted many Green-veined Whites , as well as a few Orange-tips . We heard a few  Willow Warblers and were treated to a very showy Chiffchaff . There were also some Ravens  flying close overhead. While waiting for the boat, I spotted a small bird land on a rock in front of me. It was a Grey Wagtail . I enjoyed watching the bird feeding in a small stream right next to me, accompanied by a Pied Wagtail .  I then started scanning the sea where I spotted two Fulmars flying close in. I watched them land on what I presumed was a nest on the side of the cliff. We also spotted a Shag  flying close in.  While on the boat, we got great views of a few Puffins , Guillemots , Razorbills , Shags , Kittiwakes  and Fulmars , along with one or two Manx Shearwaters . As soon as...