Yes, but I admit that, while able to look at the pictures, if I hadn’t had the nasty experience with a spider as a kid, it would be moths that I found least appealing, especially when fluttering around me!! Give me a nice snake any day!!
p.s. Heddiw: bright sun, temperature above 0C, wind only just picking up. Power cut bore’ma!!
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The weather forecast for today was continuous rain all day. About lunchtime there was a clearer spell and I took this picture from our bedroom window.
There seems to have been a minor metereological misjudgement.
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It’s good to see your pictures; they encourage thoughts that Spring may possibly be on the way. I’m fed up waiting to get into my vegetable patch which always seems to be either muddy or frozen.
Here are my snowdrops (hundreds of them in this picture).
And here are some daffodils!
We seem to be several weeks behind.
BTW These are colour photographs!
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I must admit Raymond, on first glance, that top one could have been a still from one of those 30s B&W psychological thrillers…e.g. “Night Must Fall”.
Great pictures though. Makes me shiver just to look at them.
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May I apologise on behalf of Biological Science for discovering how related species from DNA are and having to change the Latin names!
I’ve never seen a hornet in Wales, I have seen one in Southern England, they are scary!
I’m interested now in the issue of how different Welsh local names are from English ones and the Latin names! The whole issue of local names compared to scientific names is always interesting. I assume insect names will come up in SSiW4k!
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If you haven’t seen it, I’ve been maintaining a list of terminology from this thread.
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I think it’s a good indication that our knowledge is never perfect, just in line with current knowledge.
I hope Darwin (and equally important pioneers in this field) would be thrilled that the theory is sound, but still needs polishing.
Strangely i quite like them,
Oh, big subject, varying from county to county at times.
I am now looking forward to SSIW4K.
I did look a couple of weeks ago and noted it is still growing, many thanks Craig it’s a great piece of work.
Rwan hyn, mae’n hawdd i dweud bod fi edrych ymlaen i’r cyhydnos gwanwyn.
Right now, it’s easy to say that i look forward to the spring equinox.
pan golau dydd a thywyllwch yn un hyd - when daylight and darkness are the same length.
It appears once again to be not quite perfect, the equinox is when the sun crosses the mid point between the equator and pole (due to the Earth’s wobbling orbit).
But when looking at sun rise/set tables i find the equal light/dark situation arrives on the 17th March, either way, spring approaches and we can look forward to the country turning green along with other colours.
I will trying to improve on photo’s and commentary of last years wildlife and more, (there’s optimism).
Cheers J.P.
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A question to @ramblingjohn or anyone who’s familiar with the habits of the birds. Is it normal for ducks to live on the snow? There are lots of ducks just in the centre of our city, for some reason, and they seem to have been here for about a month now. Kind people feed them, but I’m very worried that they might freeze or something. It’s still cold here. Shouldn’t ducks come back a bit later in the spring?
Could that be a by-product of the weird weather due to global warming etc.? We had sun and not too cold yesterday, frost this morning and warm sunshine recently, followed by the snow!!. Everything is getting caught out! Creatures find they are warm and set out for their summer home, only to discover it is freezing!!
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I remember (i think it was 1983 ) when it got seriously cold on the farm, the geese were quite happy walking around on the frozen snow, we fed the sheep once a day, and broke ice on a pond (with a large iron bar as the ice was thick) to get the sheep a bucket of water, their fleeces were frozen with snow on them and yet they survived, it’s amazing what wildlife can withstand so long as it gets food.
Heddiw (on the Oxford ramble).
gŵydd wyllt - Greylag goose.
Carn yr ebol - Colt’s foot.
Riwbob - Rhubarb.
Hwyaden ddanheddog gwrywaidd - male goosander.
Hwyaden ddanheddog benywidd - Female goosander.
Ydfran/Ydfrain - Rook/s (mae nhw yn dechrau codi nythod - they are starting to build nests).
Mwydyn - Earth worm. (braidd yn hir - fairly long).
galwad cynnar for today.
Gair newydd: Hiliogaeth - New word: offspring/descendants.
Cheers J.P.
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New here. It’s brilliant. Thank you. I’ve just seen the Northern Lights for the first time n my life. No pictures though, sorry.
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We see them often here in Yr Alban, despite being near the west coast, but I am feeling a bit of an idiot, as the media are full of gorgeous pics, some taken far to the south, some in Wales, and I didn’t notice them last night!!!
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Hydref blodeuyn ac gwenynen. (Autumn flower and bee)
This is an image of a cup gum flower in my back yard in the Adelaide Hills, They provide nectar for the bees when there is not much else around as it is usually pretty dry around here this time of year.
Mwynhau!
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Ein mwy ffotograff.
The botanical name for this tree is Eucalyptus cosmophylla for those who are interested.
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Normally, here in mid-Missouri (USA), Spring comes a bit later than it is this year. We usually have daffodils rather late in March. (One reason I like them so much, I think - they tend to be blooming around my birthday!) Anyway, as I mentioned, Spring is coming quite early this year - and this is what we found this morning (March 7)!.
We have a few blooming elsewhere, too, and LOTS more getting ready to bloom. Yay!
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As spring approaches many birds start to look their most colourful.
iâr ddŵr - Moorhen.
Hwyaden lwyd gwrywaidd - male Gadwall (note missing feathers from its chest, i’m not sure if this is getting new feathers, the result of fighting or pulling them out to line a nest). This Hwyaden lwyd has an interesting problem.
Hwyaden lwyd gwrywaidd gyda Hwyaden wyllt benywaidd.
The gadwall thinks it is a Mallard (this maybe because it was raised by a mallard when an egg was laid in the others nest, or when very young chicks got mixed up, this results in one species having the behaviour of the other species and has been noted happening in the wild).
Ffesant ceiliog - cock phesant (this came close enough to show how bright these get in the spring, note feathers on back of head almost forming what look like horns).
As usual click on images for full size.
Cheers J.P.
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That is a gorgeous photo of the ffesant ceiling.
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What fabulous photos, John! I love the Moorhen, and the phesant is spectacular!
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For other important pioneers in the Field - a good Welsh link, held in very high regard scientifically would be Alfred Russel Wallace from Usk - known as the father of biogeography. He co-wrote a lot of things with Charles Darwin and independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection. Without his contribution to extensive mapping of world species during the 19th century, Darwin’s origin of the species wouldn’t have been possible.
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