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Many new photos added to the Dernol Valley website.

Many new photos added to the Dernol Valley website.

Updated Dernol Valley website

I’ve made many minor updates throughout the site, and added about 130 new photos.

Moths & Butterflies – 19 new photos, mostly from trapping in Glandernol garden.

Xylocampa areola (Early Grey) moth

Xylocampa areola (Early Grey) moth

 

Gardening – 23 new photos from Glandernol garden.

Helleborus (Hellebore) 'Golden Lotus' in Glandernol garden

Helleborus (Hellebore) ‘Golden Lotus’

 

Fungi – many new photos added.

photo of Xylaria hypoxylon (Candlesnuff fungus)

Xylaria hypoxylon (Candlesnuff fungus)

 

There are also new photos on the Landscape page, and on most of the other Animals and Plants pages.

New photos added

New photos added

New photos added to several galleries.

I’ve uploaded a backlog of photos to the Dernol Valley website, including to the following pages:

Moths & Butterflies – 13 new photos, mostly from trapping in Glandernol garden.

Pebble Hook-tip (Drepana falcataria)

 

Gardening – 23 new photos from Glandernol garden. It’s been a strange year for gardening, but eventually everything has turned out very well. It seems an exceptional year for flowers, and after a late start, they are now getting plenty of insect visitors.

Echinacea ‘Red Pearl’

 

Birds  – new photos of Pied Flycatcher chicks (by a licensed ringer, Amy Moscrop) and an adult Spotted Flycatcher. In our garden this year we have had nests of Spotted Flycatcher, Robin and Blackbird fledge, and although we didn’t see the chicks, we assume that the Goldcrests fledged too. We were lucky enough to see the Goldcrests gathering spiders webs for nest-building in our garage and under the eaves of our house, something we’ve never seen before.

Muscicapa striata (Spotted Flycatcher)

Muscicapa striata (Spotted Flycatcher)

 

There are also new photos on the Amphibians and Trees pages.

New Elan Valley gallery added

New Elan Valley gallery added

New Elan Valley gallery added.

I’ve added a new gallery of 39 photos of the Elan Valley – one of my favourite places in Wales!

A beautiful area at any time of year, I’m looking forward to being able to explore it, and its wildlife, again very soon.

Elan Valley on Local Area page

New galleries added

New galleries added

Fritillaria meleagris (Snake’s-head Fritillery) & Helleborus (Hellebore)

New galleries added.

I’ve added new photo galleries to the ‘Gardening’ page today, one for Ornamental Plants and one for Herbs, Vegetables & Fruit.

Some of the galleries on our website have a lot of photos in (300+), which must make them laborious to view on a small tablet screen or a ‘phone; any suggestions on how we could improve this are welcome.

One of our aims with this website is to encourage people to look more closely at where they live, and also to grow plants that will attract, and feed, wildlife, even in a small garden; please do pass on a link to our site to anyone who it might encourage to do so, even if they don’t live in this area.

Welcome to the new Dernol Valley website.

Welcome to the new Dernol Valley website.

Dernol Valley website now live.

This new website is about the Dernol Valley in mid-Wales, particularly the wildlife – animal and plant – that lives here, but also the landscape and history, and artworks inspired by it.

The initial intention was for it to be somewhere to keep my insect photographs in an organised and easily-accessible way, but once I started making it, it kept growing as I thought of other things I’d like to add to it …

I am not an expert on any of the sections on the site, so always welcome people letting me know if I have wrongly identified anything, or giving me advice if I have not identified something at all. At the moment, I’d particularly welcome help with the text in the ‘sub-order Auchenorrhyncha – Leafhoppers, Froghoppers & Planthoppers‘ section of the ‘Beetles & True Bugs‘ page, as I’m finding it difficult to explain the differences between the various types.

At the moment, some sections have more content than others; the ‘Insects and other Arthropods’ section has a lot of photos in its galleries, most of the plant sections do not, but this is an ongoing project and many more photos will be added. The ‘Gardening’ and ‘Cats, Dogs, Horses and Hens’ sections currently have no photos in them, but these will be added in the next few weeks.

I intend to concentrate on trees, mosses, grasses and lichens in 2021, but I am also likely to get waylaid by other things I see along the way, so no promises! Once it is safe to mingle again, I’d also welcome any experts who would be prepared to accompany me on a ‘field trip’ in Dernol  to help me learn more about identification of lichens (particularly crustose), mosses and grasses in particular.

Please do look around if anything takes you interest!