A few bits and pieces

Every now and then, a wader turns up at Goldcliff on the Gwent Levels, where I do nearly all of my coastal bird watching. Recently I was scanning through a flock of 40+ Curlews when I noticed one of them had a set of colour rings on its legs. Knowing that there is a Curlew Ringing Group locally I took some pictures and emailed them off to see if they could find out the bird's history.


I was pleased to get a reply a while later, and to discover that this bird was ringed as a breeding male back on the 21st of May 2012 in Saerbeck in Poland, and has bred every year since. I was thrilled to get some feedback on this bird and it intrigues me that a bird can cover such distances. I am keeping a look out for this bird. A while back I spotted a Canada Goose with a leg ring with the letters FANC on it. It transpired this bird was ringed at Windermere several years ago and likes to frequent the Gwent Levels.

There is currently a ringed Black-tailed Godwit at Goldcliff and the details and pictures have been submitted, and I am waiting for a reply on this bird along with a colour ringed Avocet.


Fungi with a fun guy!

The summer months are not usually known to be a good time for fungi, but with the continual warm weather interspersed with rain, it has been ideal for fungi to flourish, and over the last month in two woodland sites I like to visit, the fungi species on offer have been plentiful. Recently I was pleased to find two new editions to my fungi life list - Deer Shield (below) and Tawny Grisette.


The Deer Shield is found on dead stumps, logs and branches and also on sawdust in woodlands. This particular one I found was close to a Hazel with dead wood around it. It varies in size and colour with a felt like centre which becomes greasy when wet. It can have a musty radish-like smell too. It is a common edible species but one which has eluded me for many years.

The Tawny Grisette (below) was more noticeable, standing on a straight stem about 8 inches tall with a tawny-brown cap about 4 inches across. They can grow singly (as in this particular one) or in groups in deciduous woodlands and occasionally with conifers.  They are edible only when cooked but like all fungi, they should only be consumed if you are 100% sure of the species and its edibility. 


Species list from my visit 30/09/2020

Turkey Tail

Black Bulgar

Ganoderma

Deer Shield

Russet Toughshank

Styptic Fungus

Tawny Grisette

Dryad's Saddle

Stump Puffball

Clustered Psatherella

Jelly Fungus

Tinder Fungus

Oyster Mushroom

Trooping Crumble Cap

Birch Polypore









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A well-travelled Great White Egret

Image
  This handsome fellow is a Great White Egret, one of a pair I watched at the Goldcliff Reserve (Newport) on Friday June 9th. What stood out about this one was a red colour ring on the lower left leg with the letters ABP. I put the picture on my Twitter page (@ecology_cymru) and was pleased to receive a quick reply, and it seems this individual has done a fair bit of travelling already. It was ringed at Ham Wall in Somerset - https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/ham-wall/ on 29th April 2022, and since then, recovery records have shown it to have visited North Yorkshire, Lothian, Northumberland, back to Wales (Powys), then up to Doncaster, and as of only four days before I seen it, in Derbyshire. Now that is not bad going for a bird barely two years old.  ABP ringed as a chick at Ham Wall Nature Reserve (picture                                  courtesy of the RSPB ringing project) I was also pleased to receive an email from Alison Morgan of the RSPB, who provided me
Read more

The pine nut crackers

Image
(Article written for the Majorca Daily Bulletin as part of my weekly 'Wild Mallorca' column. Pictures copyright Neville Davies) Adult male Son Real Woods Mallorca Mallorca has a member of the finch family that is packed with character, quite large and with a unique shaped bill. Here, the Common Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra balearica) is a sub-species that in Catalan goes by the name of 'Trencanpinyons', or 'pine nut cracker', or Piquituerto común in Spanish. They have a length of 15 - 17cm with a wingspan of 27 - 30cm and a weight  between 40 and 53g. The familiar 'chip chip chip' calls always give away their presence, and they utter these calls both when feeding and flying to and from feeding areas in their small groups. Cases Velles on the Formentor road is my favourite site to visit to see these colourful finches, and where Mediterranean Flycatchers and Firecrests can also be added to the day's list. Mondrago is another good site as like Cases Ve
Read more

A sting in the tail

Image
 Article for the Majorca Daily Bulletin for the week beginning July 25th 2023. I decided to write this week about my experience of getting stung by Jellyfish in the cove at Cala San Vicente (Mallorca), as this week parts of the cove have been closed off to swimmers for that reason. Read below a section of the chapter taken from my forthcoming book, 'Not quite living the dream'.   The scene of the crime - the beautiful little cove of Cala San Vicente. So, here I am one late afternoon with my three-quarter length shorts and white pasty legs on show, all set to go into the sea. I watched an Osprey that was showing well in the area and a Booted Eagle had passed high over the ridge. At the water’s edge however, I noticed a large number of purple coloured Jellyfish  about the size of a hand. They seemed to be motionless and washing up gently onto the sand. They all seemed to be on the left side of the cove by the protruding rocks. I had heard stories of people getting stung by Jellyf
Read more