Heddiw yr haul diflannu eto - Today the sun disappeared again.
Y ddraenen wen blodeuo - Hawthorne flowering.
Blodau ar celynnen - flowers on holly.
ceirios yn datblygu - Cherries developing.
con newydd yn tyfu ar Llarwydden ewrop - new cone growing on European larch.
Llo wyn bach - little white calf.
Not good sound (wind across mike) no matter, the purpose is to illustrate just how many oak apples there are on this remarkable find.
Cheers J.P.
I’m glad not all larches succumbed to that nasty ailment, or were culled to stop it! We lost a lot up here.
This is amazing, surreal.
My first picture was taken post mortem sadly; I found this little bee on a window sill indoors.
After some Googling, I’m settling for a female, hairy footed flower bee. Check out those hairy legs!!
It reminded me of a picture I took of some lambs a couple of weeks ago. They had great legs too.
Oh my! I do not generally require a copyn alert but that many tiny spiders in one place is giving me the creeps! 
I love @pippapritchard’s lambs! Dw i’n dwli ar yr wyn! 
I’m the reverse! Normally need alert, normally (sorry folks) kill 8 legged critters on sight, but those itsy ones are OK!
Today saw first lesser redpoll of the year. (llinos bengoch) Only picture in shade and red on head could not be seen!
I’m looking at all these nice pictures of flowers and spring and stuff while it’s literally snowing here right now… 
Mae’n bwrw eira ym mis Mai! (it’s snowing in May!)
Even the weather forecaster couldn’t stop laughing…
Mae’r heulwen dechwelyd yma heddiw - The sunshine returned here today.
Gwyfyn teires lleiaf - lesser treble bar moth.
Gwybedyn Mai - Mayfly. (click on image for full size).
Cheers J.P.
Melinau gwynt - LOT o felinau gwynt! Up the Neath valley
Awyren “Cennen” (a very suitable reg for the Cymro Cymraeg who flew her in!)
Both from last night
I know that envy is a very bad emotion, but…one look at that view and dwi’n teimlo eiddigedd (I feel envy)!
To @ramblingjohn Yesterday I was washing up and saw ‘our’ redpoll, but it was being bullied by the resident finches and even the siskins! Every time poor redpoll managed to land on a feeder perch, the nearest finch or siskin pecked it and it flew off again. I am very sorry to say, I suspect it will not come back to such an unwelcoming place.
I know every single time how lucky I am!
Here’s a strange thing posted today on Oxford Univ’s Wytham Woods Twitter a/c (and how very appropriate that it has a Twitter a/c!)
Wytham Tit Study @WythamTits 2h
Here is 1 of our mixed species broods-so far the unsuspecting blue tit parents have two happy great tit chicks (blue tit eggs yet to hatch)!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_jvPupXsAESb5J.jpg
So are Great Tits now the cuckoos of the titmouse world?
Didn’t the same happen to a blue tit nest on Springwatch on BBC tv one year?
Blimey, I’ve never heard of this before.
Yes.
No, it just happens sometimes that two species decide to nest in the same place at the same time.
The most remarkable piece of film i have seen concerning this, is a hen pheasant trying to move a duck of it’s nest, the duck wouldn’t move, the pheasant laid it’s egg in front of the duck nest and left, the duck looked and though oh one of my eggs has rolled out of the nest, and gently with it’s beak maneuvered the pheasant egg into it’s nest.
When the people looked at their garden camera film and saw this, they later checked the duck nest and found it contained several pheasant eggs along with the ducks own eggs.
Cheers J.P.
Diolch J.P.
Really fascinating stuff! Presumably only one bird/pair builds the nest in the first place (??) but after ‘mixed egg-laying’, is it simply a territorial thing with one bird establishing ownership and the other giving up, or are cases known where both end up sitting on the eggs at different times - or even maybe feeding hatchlings?
Hwyl, John
With tits, I think only one pair raised the young and fed them to fledging, probably especially proud of the big ones!! (Blue tits raising great tits). Duck and pheasants would be a puzzle! Back when, my Deputy raised hen eggs in an incubator at work where another lad was rasing ducks. He gave my lad one of the ducklings. Donald grew up convinced he was a chicken. I think I have told this someplace else on the Forum. Donald wanted to mate with the hens. His owner got a female duck, but Donald ignored poor Daphne. One day, when rounding up the flock for the night. their owner saw Donald, who never entered water, actually jump into the pond to escape being ‘rounded’. He found he could swim and kept going! Unfortunately all the hens followed him and had to be fished out and dried!! Heaven help a duck raised as a pheasant! Although that would provide a better chance of long life than a pheasant raised as a duck!
I find it all very interesting (and sometimes in a way that can be related to humans).
It gets complex because often there is one of two options, but then there are a lot of those options.
For instance, one or both sexes take part in nest building.
One or both sexes take part in nest site selection.
One or both sexes may be polygamous (given the opportunity).
Some species start several nests and choose which is best (or multiple partners).
Where males share incubation there it’s possible for females to lay in other nests.
One of the pair may be predated.
I’m sure there are other variables that i need time to think of, but i do think all options are possible, though maybe not recorded as yet, i would not exclude the possibility of two species feeding one nest of young (mixed species young or not).
One thing of note is the maternal/paternal instinct is strong in some individuals while being lacking in others (not a judgment on my part).
We may view the cuckoo as a bad parent because it plays not part in raising it’s offspring, yet, it can lay a lot more eggs than it could possible raise, by spreading them around several other birds nests, thus giving it’s young a better chance of success !
Cheers J.P.
A classic case of giving your offspring a better chance by giving them up!
A great turn of phrase there henddraig, and a nice opportunity to than all contributors to this small font of knowledge.
Heddiw, dw i’n cael amser dda - today, i had a great time.
Gwibiwr brith - Grizzled skipper.
Gwyfyn ffacbys - Brunet companion.
Glesyn cyffredin (gwrywaidd) - Common blue (male).
Cheers J.P.
