Pagham Harbour

We visited Pagham Harbour again and explored the north side of the harbour. We saw a sparrowhawk and a hobby. The bird lists in the visitor centre said that ospreys and avocets had been seen the week before but we didn't see any.

Hook with Warsash Local Nature Reserve

In the morning we went for a walk by the Itchen looking for the Kingfishers which I saw on Saturday, but they weren't around. I had seen two just below Woddmill on Saturday when the tide was out. The tide was in today so catching fish there would have been more difficult. We did see a very late duckling though.

In the afternoon we went to Hook with Warsash Nature Reserve and saw Black-tailed Godwit, a Heron, Little Egret, Oyster Catchers and a cabbage white caterpillar on some sea kale. It's the first time we've been there but we'll be back.

A Cricket and Bats by the Itchen

Went for an an evening walk by the Itchen and saw a Dark Bush Cricket. By the river we saw three kinds of bats. Pipistrelle which are the most common British bat, Daubenton's which are a similar size to Pipistrelle but skim low over the water and Noctule bats which are larger (35cm wingspan) and fly higher up.

Lacewing Larva

We found this insect under a leaf on the buddleja. Putting an unknown bug on my hand might not have been the best plan as I think it might have tried to bite me. I didn't know what this was but I uploaded the photo to flickr and posted it to the British Insects and other arthropods pool and within hours flickr user mountainashe identified it as a lacewing larva. There's two more pictures of it here and here

Snowdonia

Sunday

We went for a walk from Talsarnau along the estuary towards Pont Briwet (the road and rail bridge over the Afon Dwyryd). Saw some canada geese and baby sole in Afon Dwyryd. We walked back over the hills via Llyn Tecwyn Uchaf and through some steep forest paths. Saw a couple of hares too.

Monday
Went to Criccieth Castle then had lunch on the beach. Went to Pwllheli and walked round the east side of the harbour and saw some herons and some jellyfish.

Tuesday
Went up Snowdon from Nantgwynant via the south ridge going to the summit of Allt Maenderyn on the way. All along the ridges we were in cloud. The station and cafe at the top of Snowdon are being rebuilt at the moment so as we neared the summit we were greeted buy the slightly odd sight of construction equipment. After stopping for our last sandwich we descended on the watkin path. Our route was nearly the reverse of route 6 on High Trek Snowdonia.

Wednesday
A journey on the Caernarfon end of the Welsh Highland Railway. We travelled from Caernarfon to behind Beyer-Garratt #138, had lunch at Rhyd Ddu then got the train back to Waunfawr pulled byCastell Caernarfon. We looked round the gardens at Antur Waunfawr, then went for a pint at the Snowdonia Park Brewpub next to the station.

Thursday
Went to Penrhyn Castle - as well as the usual stuff you'd expect from a national trust stately home it has Britain's only industrial railway museum which included locomotives Penrhyn quarries and the Dinorwig quarries which we visited on Friday!

Friday
Went to the National Slate Museum in Llanberis. It is situated in the Dinorwig quarry workshops and is next to the Llanberis lake railway. It has the largest waterwheel in Britain (it is huge!), demonstrations of slate splitting (which can still only be done by hand), and old workers cottages which had been furnished to reflect slate workers houses in 1860, 1901 and 1969. The cottages were tiny - about the size of the one bedroom cottage we were staying in - yet the 1860 one had a family of 5 plus two lodgers living in it. We also took a look at the only working incline (though it wasn't in use when we were there) and took what I though would be a short walk up to a viewpoint.

Pagham Harbour

We went to Pagham Harbour on Saturday afternoon. There weren't as many birds as last time we were there but we did see shell ducks, a lapwing, curlews, oyster catchers, swans and little egrets. There were loads of dead crabs - some big ones, and loads of little one washed up around the harbour. And dead cuttlefish - I've seen the cuttlebones that are washed up on the shore but this one still had skin and flesh. Something (seagulls?) had eaten the tentacles but we could see where the ink sack must have been.

In the evening we went across to West Wittering and had a Barbeque on the beach. Paul and Kerry both took some photos. Fortunately for me they both managed to get some great shots of the sunset - I don't remember it at all - I must have been to busy enjoying the food.

Photos:
Pagham Harbour
Barbeque at West Wittering [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Portland

We went to Chesil Beach for lunch then explored around Portland Bill. We saw some big prawns and fairly large fish in rockpools - gobys and blennies I think.

On the way out of Portland we stopped at the viewpoint above Portland Harbour and had a look round. We saw a mouse and a yellowhammer.

There's some more photos in my Portland album on picasaweb.