Occasionally, I go up to Aberdaron in North Wales to meet up with a few friends, the only connection being that we used to work together and one has a cottage there. Aberdaron is a fairly remote village at the farthest end of the Llyn peninsular, looking out over the Irish Sea, Cardigan Bay, and Bardsey Island. This is normally a good place to see Choughs - I once saw a flock of about 20 here - but on this visit, despite checking out as many black birds as the strong south-easterly allowed, all I saw were crows and jackdaws.
We did manage to see some grey seals though, as well as a late season queen common carder bumblebee clinging to knapweed and storing up nectar for her forthcoming hibernation. Incidentally, the scientific name of the grey seal -
Halichoerus grypus - means hook-nosed little sea pig!
If anybody ever wonders how aggressive bumblebees are, they should know that to take these pictures I had the lens of the camera about six inches away from her, and was holding the stem of the flower in my other hand. The only threat I got was a back leg raised as if to say - I've got a sting under here - please go away.
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| Common Carder - Bombus pascuorum |
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| Common Carder - Bombus pascuorum |
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| Grey Seal - Halichoerus grypus |
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| Grey Seals - Halichoerus grypus |
