Bosherston Lakes and Stackpole Warren, Pembrokeshire

We had a fabulous day at Bosherston Lakes and Stackpole Warren. We arrived at Bosherston Lake at 6am and were delighted to see an Otter swimming across one of the lakes. We also saw Peregrine, Buzzard and Raven.

Bosherston Lakes in the early morning sunlight. The Otter swam across the sunny bay and dived several times as we watched.


Bosherston Lakes and Broadhaven.


Migrant Hawker and Red-veined Darter. Bosherston Lakes is a SSSI partly on account of its dragonfly species, and this afternoon we saw plenty of Migrant Hawkers, Common Darters and Common Blue Damselflies. Red-veined Darter is a migrant species which has occured in St Helens in at least two years.


Common Blue Damselfly and Barafundle Bay



Stockpole Warren cliffs. Stockpole Warren has a variety of habitats, from sea cliffs to sand dunes to limestone outcrops, and has lots of short turf with a great diversity of plants.


Autumn Ladies Tresses Spiranthes spiralis at Stockpole Warren.


We found this magnificent Great Green Bush Cricket at Stockpole Warren.

Dowrog Common and St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire

We headed over to St. David's today, to compare the established Dowrig Common with the restored St. David's airfield. Both sites are good examples of wet heath, a rare and declining habitat in the UK.


Dowrog Common and St David's Airfield. Dowrog is grazed by cattle, St. David's Airfield by Welsh Mountain Ponies.


Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliata on Dowrog Common.


Yellow Centaury Cicendia filiformis is one of the star attractions of both sites. Quite an insignificant looking plant, it only opens on sunny days, which today it certainly was not!


The impressive looking spider Araneus quadratus from St. David's airfield and a Harvestman with incredibly long legs at Orielton, still awaiting id.

Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats, Orielton FSC

A day spent mainly in the lab working through the catch of invertebates from the pitfall traps that we set in the dunes on Friday. Highlight of the day was watching the horseshoe bats leave their roost in the stables. Today we counted at least 20 Lessers and 3 Greaters, the latter emiting sound at 80kHZ. Amazing how close they came, at times I almost felt like ducking because they surely must hit me!

Stack Rocks to St. Govan's Head, Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire

We spent the day walking along the cliffs between Stack Rocks and St. Govan's Head, surveying the cliff top vegetation for suitability for Choughs. It was a glorious day, with a nice display of autumn flowers, and plenty of Choughs.


Castlemartin cliffs. Spot the the members of our group on the cliffs! Sea Aster Aster tripolium and (Lax-flowered?) Sea Lavander grow profusely on the cliffs. We saw the Sea Aster on the saltmarsh on Thursday.


Golden-samphire Inula crithmoides.


Rock Samphire Crithmum maritimum.


The star of the show, we saw about 20 Choughs. Also a few Gannets, Fulmars and Ravens, and there seemed to be a few migrants moving through, with about 10 Wheatears, and lots of hirundines, mainly Swallows. Also a Painted Lady butterfly on the cliffs, which may well have been a migrant which had just arrived from the south.

Orielton FSC

A couple of early morning catches, an August Thorn moth and a Bank Vole.

St Govan's Head and a couple of Sopranos

An evening visit to St. Govan's Head produced 6 Choughs, including two which came and sat on the wall next to me. Also a few Gannets out at sea, and 2 Harbour Porpoise. Later, after it had gone dark, we saw a couple of Soprano Pipistrelles flying around a bridge near Stackpole.

Freshwater West dunes, Pembrokeshire

It was a scorching hot day today at Freshwater West dunes in Pembrokeshire. We spent the day surveying dune flora.


Freshwater West and Sea Bindweed Calystegia soldanella.


I don't think I've ever seen such a large patch of Sea-holly Eryngium maritimum before. Later in the afternoon we set up some pitfall traps in order to survey invertabrates of the dunes later in the week.


This morning we checked the mammal traps which we set last night, and found that we had caught Field Mice and Bank Voles. The photograph shows a Field Mouse being weighed.