A post from our Chairman, Andrew:

During the lockdown, many of us have been taking the opportunity to do some recording of species in our own patch, or at other local sites we can visit during our permitted exercise.  Apart from the Meadows Group’s own glow worm project (see the poster in the previous blog entry) there is the “Common or Garden” recording scheme from the West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC).  Every so often, the Common or Garden species list changes, this is to reflect the periods at which the species are most likely to be seen.  The new list is here:

Butterfly Conservation have produced a newsletter called “Frits About Your Fields”: https://butterfly-conservation.org/sites/default/files/2020-06/Frits%20About%2010%20June%202020%20No%201.1.pdf

It has records up to 10 June across Wales but includes some sightings of both Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Marsh Fritillary in this county. With some new sites recorded by CMG members on their land. For more details go to the full newsletter via the link.

Finally, we haven’t been out recording as much as we normally would have in two of our small fields in the last few weeks, because in a tall oak between them (they are both managed as meadows), there is a nest of red kites!  We have only gone near the nest occasionally so as to keep disturbance to a minimum, but they are now used to us moving around and doing things in the adjacent field, and they ignore us until we go into “their” field.  So, although we’ve not been noting when the orchids and other plants first appeared this year, at least we could send in a record for red kite, which was quite satisfying.

Andrew