Day 22 Go on an Insect Hunt

I decided upon an easy random act of wildness today and so after tea this evening I drove out to Sidings Lane Nature Reserve on the Rainford Bypass with my youngest daughter.  It's only a ten minute drive from my house but it's been over twelve years since I last visited the site.  

The aim of the visit today was to see how many different insects I could find in the hour we were there.  Finding them was one thing, photographing them another. I was either too slow zooming in with the camera and they took off or I couldn't quite get a sharp focus on my subjects.

At first it is quite difficult to find any insects in the grass and bushes but as your eyes become trained you start to see more and more.  There wasn't a massive variety of insects on show tonight but we did manage to find a small selection in the hour we were there.

I will definitely make more of an effort to visit this site and would like to come early one morning to see if I can spot a fox or even a badger.  One thing I will do after todays visit is make sure I master the manual focus feature of my camera.

Following the woodland

path to the meadow

The woodland path

The meadow

Our first bug find of the day

Daughter looking for insects

Ants on a prickly plant

Green metallic fly sadly out of focus

Daughter spots something

One of many snails we found

Fly

Time for a quick photo

The pond at the Nature Reserve

A Moth

A Large Red Damselfly

Daughter checking out the pond

Lily Pads

The pond to ourselves

The pond

A Water Lily

Longhorn Moth

More flies

Great colours

Daughter finds some more Ants

Ants

Copulating flies

Moth

Me looking for insects

Wildflowers

One of many areas where

we looked for insects

Bee in a leaf

Bee on a flower

(top view)

Bee on a flower

(side view)

Bee on a leaf

Cleaning our shoes

before we drive home

Day 21 Walk up a Mountain

After closely watching the weather forecast on Friday and Saturday I decided I would be able to carry out my arranged vist to Llanberis today for Day 21 of the 30 Days Wild challenge, walking up a mountain.

I've been to Llanberis several times now, twice to run the Snowdonia Marathon and once to run up to the summit of Mount Snowdon and back down again in the Snowdon Mountain race.

Today I wanted to take it easy for change and walk up Mount Snowdon via the Llanberis path, a 9 mile round trip and a 975 metre ascent. I say take it easy but even the easiest route up the mountain requires alot of effort.

I was joined for today's walk by my eldest daughter who has never been up a Mountain before.

Me running in the 

Snowdon Mountain Race back in 2007

My race medal from 2007

The start of the todays walk

A map of our route

The tarmac path

The tarmac path

Time to leave the tarmac path

The long upwards slog

Some people chose to

run up the Mountain today

Heading up to the Halfway House

The Mountain Railway

A lonely wildflower

Heading into the cloud

The path up

Almost time to rest and

have something to eat

A Cafe owner on the side 

of the tarmac path was giving

out free sandwiches to walkers

going up Snowdon via the
Llanberis path.

I opted for the pulled pork, cheese

and BBQ sauce one.

Looking up towards the Mountain Train

Are we there yet?

Clogwyn Coch

Looking down to Nant Peris

Nant Peris

campsite

Steady slog

One of many trains

coming up to the summit

In the cloud

Cloud clears

Heading towards the summit

The summit appears

through the cloud

Daughter climbs up to the summit

At the top of Snowdon

Me, the man behind the camera

Sheep on the summit,

right next to a sheer drop

Another sheep dicing with danger

Grib Coch,

I once scrambled across that 

during another Walk up Snowdon

Looking down towards the miners track

Train on its way up

Snowdon Lilies growing in the grass

Snowdon Lily

Snowdon Lilies

Lichen

Meadow Pipit

Nearing the tarmac path

on our way back down

Sheep in the sun

Bah

Back on the tarmac path

Me in Llanberis

drinking ice cold milk

after a good few hours walking

We had our drinks sat next to a pond in

a GP Practice's Garden facing

the Electric Mountain Visitor Centre

and enjoyed our cold drinks

Looking at tadpoles and pondskaters

Our seats in the garden

Wildflowers growing in the Garden

Wildflowers growing in the wall

 Herring Gull on Llyn Padarn

 Another Herring Gull

Quick ten minutes by

Llyn Padarn

before we drive home