Bodnant Gardens - 27th July 2026

 On Monday, Jayne and I stopped off at the National Trust's Bodnant Gardens, on route to Anglesey.

We had a walk around the site, and noted a few nice butterflies, including two new for the year: Clouded Yellow and Common Blue Butterfly.

Clouded Yellow (over exposed!!!)

Common Blue Butterfly (female)

We also spotted 6+ Painted Ladies, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Green-veined Whites.

Dragonflies were also seen, including Common Darter, Golden-ringed Dragonfly (both new for the year), Migrant Hawker, Emperor (2 males and a couple of ovipositing females), Common Blue and Azure Damselflies.

Emperor

Wales Weekend - 26th - 28th May 2023

Jayne and I had a few days on Anglesey this weekend. We stopped in Treaddur Bay and visited a few well known spots and one new one.

Our first stop was the National Trust's Bodnant Garden, where we enjoyed a lovely walk around, including the beautiful Laburnum Arch, and spotted a few insects - Beautiful Demoiselle (male and female), Common Blue, Large Red and Azure Damselfly. We also spotted a Grey Wagtail feeding recently fledged young - with Large Red Damselflies!!

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

The following day, we popped into Holyhead Harbour to catch up with Black Guillemot, before heading off to RSPB South Stack. We had a wonderful couple of hours here, in bright sunshine, and spotted: Razorbill, Guillemot, Herring Gull, Fulmar, Linnet, Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Hooded Crow, Raven, Peregrine Falcon, Chough, Small Heath, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Wall Brown and Common Blue Butterfly.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Our final stop of day two was the North Wales Wildlife Trust's Cemlyn Lagoons, where we saw Common, Arctic and Sandwich Terns, as well as Black-headed Gulls and Oystercatcher. 

On our final day we visited  the National Trust's Plas Newydd site, in search of Red Squirrels. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see any this time, but we did enjoy a lovely walk around the grounds and house.

Year List update: Black Guillemot (164), Sandwich Tern (165) and Arctic Tern (166).

Herring Gull EPM

Jayne and I were in Llandudno over the weekend. Whilst there we spotted a Herring Gull with a colour ring, EPM. I recognised it straight away as a bird I'd seen there before, in December 2016 (see here for details and ringing and subsequent re sightings).

EPM

I sent the record off, and saw that it had now been reported on the sea front at Llandudno another 6 times since my sighting. All sightings range from September to April, with mine being the earliest "winter" record, so we still don't know if it breeds elsewhere, and winters in Llandudno. It is now  9 years and 255 days since it was ringed.

Whilst in North Wales, we visited the National Trust's Bodnant Gardens again, and saw Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Common Darter (mating pairs) and several Southern Hawkers. Butterflies seen were: Painted Lady (10), Red Admiral, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell and Common Blue.

Common Darter

Azure Damselflies

North Wales' Insects

Following on from my last post about some of the insects Jayne and I saw at RSPB South Stack I thought I'd write another post to show some of the species we saw in the Happy Valley Park in Llandudno, and at the National Trust's Bodnant Garden.

First off, Llandudno. We found this small park on the base of the Great Orme and spent a couple of hours here over two days. The highlight for me was finding a new species, Brown Argus. This is  quite a tricky species to identify, but, eventually, I managed to identify both males and females.

Brown Argus (female)

Brown Argus (male)

We also had Common Blue Butterflies and a Silver Y moth here, along with another new species for me, Mullein Moth. We didn't see the moths, but we did manage to see the very colourful caterpillars.

Mullein Moth

On Tuesday, Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at Bodnant Garden, just outside Llandudno. The weather was great, very warm and sunny, and we managed to spot some damselflies including Common Blue, Azure, Large Red and Beautiful Demoiselles, all of which were breeding.

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)