Crab Fishing in Conwy

29 September 2013

Catching Crabs

I had a fantastic time crab fishing at Conwy. I had a net full of smelly bacon which was tied onto the end of my fishing line.  The crabs loved the bacon so much and clung onto the netting with their pinchers. I  caught some very big crabs that smelt like the sea. I was so excited to hold a crab for the first time but had to make sure I held the crabs properly so I didn't get nipped.  I enjoyed an ice lolly. I liked it very much. It was a lovely day.

This is me, pulling up the net of bacon.

 

Lots of hungry crabs!

This crab wasn't very happy, can you see him getting ready to nip me!

I like the colour of this crab

My little sister Francesca also loved crab fishing. This is a photo of us in Conwy.

Night Time Sugaring & Wine Ropes = Moths and Earwigs!

22nd September 2013 - Staying up after bedtime to find moths........

 

Time For Some Unusual Cooking!

Recipe to find moths:  
Brown Ale, Brown Sugar, Treacle ......... Red Wine, Sugar..................
http://www.mothnight.info/www/index.php/recording-techniques

This is me I am going to make sweet yummy moth food. I feel so excited, I can not wait for it to get dark. Mummy got me to try treacle it was not nice, it was very thick and sticky and smelt horrible. Daddy loves it in his pudding ha ha!

Treacle going in...

Wine going in....

Brown Sugar, Treacle, Ale

Wine & Sugar

Taaaa daaaa.....!
Some yummy moth food, now
for some night time painting and cloth dipping.

Greedy Moths.......

Red Underwing (Catocala Nupta)

Copper Underwing

 I was scared going out in the dark, there was a big full moon.  I kept thinking that a fox was about and there was a really loud screeching noise coming from our garden, I wondered if it was an owl.

I was really excited to see the moths, they were lovely.  The red underwing was my favourite is was very big.  We didn't find lots of different moths only 3 types. I wonder why that would be? I also liked the brown moth it had lovely, pretty shades of brown.  Can you see the moths tongue?

Silver Y Moth  - They shiver to warm up on cold days !!!

 The earwigs loved the treacle mixture. I counted 11 earwigs all munching away!

 I am going to do some more moth night time hunts and next time I think I will spread the wine cloths everywhere!!

Pond Dip in Wepre Park

 17 September 2013

 I went to wepre park. We did pond dipping in the grounds of old wepre park hall.

 I had a lot of fun. I found a dragon fly nymph, a rams horn water snail, and lots of little fish, my favourite was the little fish. I had never seen any of them before. I liked them very, very much. Do you like them? 

When it started getting dark we saw a big southern hawker dragon fly, its wing span was about 8cm, it really was big and came very close to me, it was brown and green in colour and looked beautiful. 

The Hawkers are the largest and fastest flying dragonflies.  I think the nymphs I found will turn into one. The nymphs live in the pond for 3-4 years until they change into a dragonfly, they are very fast swimmers and will eat just about anything that moves and to move even faster to catch their dinner they burst water out of their bottoms! They can even come out of the water to eat something on land!

earwigs

12 September 2013

Earwigs

 
Today I have learnt that you can tell a mummy or daddy earwig by the shape of its pinchers. A mummy has straight pinchers and a daddy has curved pinchers.  Yesterday I found a daddy earwig when I was shaking the bushes.  Thank you to Colin at http://florafaunauk.blogspot.co.uk for encouraging me to look up and learn about this and also for the lovely post written just for me about someone who also likes to find things, just like me, take a look at this:

http://florafaunauk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/finding-things-toads-woodpeckers-mice.html

Did you also know that you can also tell a mummy or daddy cranefly by the shape of its bottom?!! ha ha isn't that really funny!

Finding life inside the bushes......

10th September 2013

Finding life inside the bushes......

When I got home from school I had a lot of fun hitting the bushes with a big stick and shaking the branches to see what bugs would fall out.  When I shook one bush, mummy was standing under it and got a big bramble stuck in her hair and couldn't get it out, she couldn't move for ages!

I was very surprised to find woodlice dropping from the big bushes as I thought that they were only on the ground. I also found a ladybird, ear wigs, tiny flies and lots of different types of spiders, many which I have not see before. I didn't find any moths, where do the moths live? my hair now feels itchy.

me - I think I need a bath!

Earwig

Ladybird and spider

Metellina Segmentata Spiders

Devils Coach-horse (Staphylinua Olens)

7th September 2013

Devils Coach-horse (Staphylinua Olens)

I found a devils coach horse. It feeds on slugs. It is awake at night.It was in my front garden under a big black cover and eating a slug. It looked scary and was doing a frightening dance, lifting up its bottom and pointing it at me and snapping its jaws together.  It didn't even try to run away but stayed as if to attack me.  I didn't dare to pick it up as it looked like it would bite me. 

 

The Devils Coach-Horse is the largest Rove Beetle.

QUOTE: "It is active at night, hunting invertebrates which are seized and eaten with the large jaws.  It can give humans a painful but harmless nip.  When disturbed it performs a threat display with its abdomen curved upwards, tail high and jaws open wide and snapped together - at the same time, the end of the abdomen emits a secretion that gives off an unpleasant smell - scorpion like'  (RSPB Garden Wildlife, Peter Holden & Geoffrey Abbott)

Can you see the bits of slug stuck to the Devil Coach-horses feet and mouth?!  What a horrible insect!

Threating dance moves (coach-horse sitting on a piece of paper for photo)

This photo was taken when the devils coach-horse finally decided to stop dancing and run away!!

The slug was very big, it was almost as long as my hand.

Rhydymwyn Valley Nature Reserve

1 September 2013 -  Rhydymwyn Valley Nature Reserve

I was very excited to go to the nature reserve as it is not normally open to the public.  The reserve was used in WW2 to make mustard gas.  I saw a lot of old buildings.

Slow Worm and Grass Snake
There are three types of reptiles at the reserve - grass snakes, slow worms and a common lizard.

We looked for a grass snake and a slow worm under things but we didn't find one. We had to get in the car lots of times and drive to different areas within the nature reserve as it was very big.

I saw a grass snake and held a slow worm when we got back to the centre. The slow worm pooed on mummy's hand ha ha! It was sheding it's skin all over me. It felt wet.

A slow worm

A grass snake

A Common Lizard

We found this common lizard in the grass when we were walking in the grass. It moved very, very quickly so we put it in a box to take a photo.  I loved seeing the lizard.  It looked a bit like the newt which we caught in our garden, but the lizard was longer and moved fast.

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica)

Moths

Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) & Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua janthe)

Large Yellow Underwing

Canary Shouldered Thorn (Ennomos alniaria)

I couldn't I I couldn't believe the number of moths which were caught overnight.  There were so many.  It was funny when the moths decided to crawl up my legs! Most of the moths were dark colours but some were yellow and white.  I like the yellow one the best, it was very pretty and had a fluffy head.  

Centre-barred Sallow

 

1764 Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata)

Sallow (Xanthia icteritia)