Clevedon Wildlife

Sitting in a different chair in the garden (I really know how to make lockdown more exciting !) I saw a drama unfold before my eyes over the course of an afternoon. The protagonists of this drama are a leaf cutter bee (Megachile species);  and a solitary wasp (Sapyga quinquepunctata) hereafter referred to as Bee and Wasp. First up I saw the bee approach and check out a small hole in my garage wall It vanished inside for a minute or so and decided that this was just the place to raise a family. Over the next hour or so it made several visits with cut up leaves and bulging pollen sacks. The leaves are used to build small cells into each of which the Bee packs pollen and then lays an egg.  The idea is that the eggs hatch into larvae that feed on the pollen until they pupate. Next spring new bees will emerge to repopulate the garden. This time things took an altogether darker turn though. Between two visits a different insect entirely s...

Last week I managed my first dragon and damselfly pictures for the year with the expectation that I would get better views. And lo: it came to pass, Much closer views of both Large Red and Azure damselflies on the vehicle track across Weston Moor reserve Further into the reserve fields I came across this teneral Hairy Hawker Dragonfly, unfortunately its a very fussy background ( as my friends who know about such things are wont to say ) but that was my only sighting Back in the garden, I briefly glimpsed a Blue-tailed Damselfly before being treated to a prolonged visit from a pair of Broad-bodied Chasers Mothwise I ran the garden trap a few times catching a number of common species. The most photogenic, though was this Poplar Hawkmoth With the general, albeit slight, relaxing of lockdown a visit to the public footpath through Ham Wall and Shapwick was both feasible and safe I was happy to hear and sometimes see the typical species such as Bearded Tit...

This has been a really quiet week for birds with just an avocet on Dowlais early on to give variety. However other creatures have stepped up to the plate in force despite the cold winds First up was this Common Seal just offshore at Dowlais one morning. A patient wait for the tide let me improve from the first snatched video, to a couple of much closer views The seal seemed happy catching crabs and smallish fish, as far as I could tell It is only about once every 5 years that Seals come this far up the channel to visit Clevedon in my experience. The other really uncommon sighting, for me at least, came while I was looking for butterflies. Because of the cold wind I had only ventured a few hundred yards from home to the side of the Blind Yeo. My hope was that a rarely used fisherman's car park might have enough flowers to attract a small copper or an early common blue as it is quite sheltered. While creeping around I heard a rustle beside a pile of wrapped u...

Down at Dowlais the only lapwing that appears to be on a nest has sat tight for the entire week. Brief glimpses of a snipe suggest that this too may be breeding Out on the estuary there has been a trickle of waders including the first summer plumaged Grey Plovers some Dunlins and a single Knot and even an Avocet ! One of the weeks highlights though, was these hares in the back field one morning Meanwhile I had my first Three-Kite-Day with two over the road to Dowlais and one over the garden later on There was even another wheatear, I have seen far fewer than expected of these and a male is always a colourful treat. Well worth the 5.00 am starts to see A dust-bathing wren shows how warm and dry it has been there Meanwhile in the garden two broad bodied chaser dragonflies appeared with a third on the Dowlais track. I have only once had this species in the garden so the extra hours spent here are paying off. The top one is a male, a female b...

This week has been much wetter than of late but my hopes pof a big fall of migrants came to nothing. Early on the appearance of this wandering Egyptian Goose was a real surprise, its a first for Dowlais to the best of my knowledge though somewhat more likely to came from the naturalised British population than to be an African overshoot. The one genuine and very uncommon visitor this week was this Wood Sandpiper which stayed for just a few hours. It was seen at various times during the day by 3 to 4 people but the commonest comment was how difficult it was to find among the rushes. almost the only other moving waders seem to have been Whimbrel but even these were in low numbers with a few at high tide at the Kenn Est roost (There is a single bar-wit here though) and sometimes a single one on the seawall dodging the dog walkers At the end of the week I noticed that one Lapwing kept returning to the same patch of grass to sit after chasing off Crows and I am...