Clyne Valley

In this glorious weather Tom too has been out and about!

In the Clyne Valley, small glades have been cleared of wood providing sunny clearings full of life. The vegetation is a mixture of bluebells, bracken with low shrub, limestone grassland as well as small birch, aspen and buckthorn trees.

In the sunny glade there were many male brimstone butterflies, and a few females laying their eggs on buckthorn as well as common hawker dragonflies and broad-bodied chasers. Further along the cycle path there is a second clearing which had been planted. Here as well as the ubiquitous brimstones, there were around half a dozen small pearl-bordered fritillaries. 

Top: Female Brimstone (left: laying eggs), bottom left: small pearl-bordered fritillary and bottom right: broad-bodied chaser. 

 I then went to Mumbles hill in search of brown argus', but to no avail. However, there were plenty of common blues, dingy skippers and speckled woods. Coming back along Swansea bay there were also plenty of common blues, a single holly blue and plenty of sandpit mining bees.

Swansea Bay