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If you are planning a cottage
holiday in Wales for the month of January, why not try and spot
the following:
Top Row - From Left to Right
1. Common Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis
The first sight of the bright white nodding heads of snowdrops
peeping through the undergrowth signals that the winter in Wales
is coming to an end. They are very hardy plants and the colder
the weather, the longer the flowers last, with some flowering
into March. The snowdrop, of which there are over 100 varieties,
grows from a small bulb and spreads as a result of birds scratching
the soil. The flower is milky-white, as indicated by its scientific
name, Galanthus (Greek, gala = milk, anthos = flower). There are
green markings on the inner petals, which experts are able to
use as a means of identification.
According to legend snowdrops first appeared
when Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, after
the Fall of Man, to a land where it was winter: cold, snowy, dark
and barren. An angel consoled them by promising that, even here,
spring would follow winter. As a token, he blew upon some falling
snowflakes which, as they touched the ground, were transformed
into snowdrops. In this way, Hope was born. Ever since then, snowdrops
have appeared during the bleakest winter weeks as a sign of the
better times to come. Further
information on snowdrops.
2. Winter Sun at Plas Farm
The sun is low in the sky during January because the
Northern Hemisphere of our planet is tilted away from the sun,
which incidentaly we orbit at a speed of 67,000 miles per hour.
The low sun creates some very long shadows and on sunny days,
the woods at Plas Farm can be very atmospheric. And just think,
no matter how leisurely your stroll, you will still be travelling
at 67,000 miles per hour.
3. Greater Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major
The woodpecker in this picture was spotted searching
for food in an oak tree near the holiday cottages. The bird usually
alights on a trunk before working upwards and often from side
to side. During the ascent it smartly taps the bark, prising off
fragments and frequently extracting food from crevices with the
tip of its sticky tongue. The bird also starts 'drumming' in January
- a vibrating rattle produced by an extremely rapid rain of blows
with the bill onto a suitable trunk. This
is not merely a mating call or challenge, but a signal of either
sex. If the "sounding board" is of the right condition
it may be heard up to a distance of half a mile.
Middle
Row - From Left to Right
4. Oak Shadows
This picture was taken on a beautiful clear day in the
fields behind the holiday cottages. The sun was low in the sky over
Coed Y Brain (The Wood of Crows), helping the oak trees to cast
dramatic shadows over the fields. I had to hide within the shadow
of the middle trunk to take this picture! Obviously, I had to pull
my stomach in slightly.
5. Sprouting Daffodils Narcissus
The daffodil is the national flower of Wales. Its Welsh
name is “cennin Pedr” or “cenhinen Bedr,”
meaning “Peter’s leek”. There are thousands of
different varieties of daffodil. The ones in the picture grow around
the base of a huge beech tree on the lawn outside Hafod Y Wennol
holiday cottage. By March they will be in full bloom.
6. Swansea Bay at Night
This picture was taken from the fields at the top of the
farm at about one o'clock in the morning. It is the view from Mynydd
Marchwyel to the south, out across Swansea Bay. It is possible to
see the M4 motorway sweeping along the South Wales coast, and on
the left hand side of the picture is the stack of Baglan Bay's 530
MW Power Station, the world's largest and most powerful single-shaft
combined-cycle gas fired power station and the first power station
capable of breaking the 60% fuel efficiency barrier. It was opened
in 2003 and is operated by General Electric Power Systems of the
USA. It is possible to make out the lights of Ilfracombe on the
Devonshire coastline in the distance and the calm waters of the
Bristol Channel in the middle distance. I am not sure but I think
the lights to the left of Ilfracombe may be those of Lynton and
Lynmouth.
Bottom
Row - From Left to Right
7. Coal Tit (Parus ater) in Beech Tree (Fagus sylvatica)
Beech nuts are part of the Coal Tit's natural diet. When
they are not raiding your bird table, this is what they get up to.
There are a few very large specimen beech trees at Plas Farm including
three fine examples on the lawn in front of the holiday cottages
which are visited regularly by Coat Tits.
When food is plentiful, Coal
Tits hoard food by hiding it all over the place for later when times
are harder. Unfortunately, the Coal Tit's memory is not as great
as its ingenuity in finding hiding places and you will often find
forgotten sunflower seeds germinating in the most unlikely places!
Great Tits can sometimes be seen watching a Coal Tit stashing away
its seed and then going to raid it.
8. Hazel Catkins Corylus avellana
One of January’s most attractive sights is Hazel catkins in
the hedgerows. The flowers are produced before the leaves, and are
monoecious (i.e having male and female flowers on the same plant
of the same species) The male catkins are pale yellow and 5-12cm
long, the female very small and largely concealed in the buds, with
only the bright red 1-3mm long styles visible. Hazels are used as
food plants by the larvae of various species of butterflies and
moths. Devoid of leaves, one can see the tough, flexible branches
very well. In days gone by, hazel branches were considered by some
to produce the worst-biting 'birch' rods (the official name, even
though referring to another species) – an instrument of punishment
and torture. Hazel has also been used for fencing, hurdles, barrel
hoops, walking sticks, fishing rods, whip handles, ties for fastening
thatch, pegs, fuel for ovens, faggots and charcoal for gunpowder,
domestic fires and ovens.
9. Blue Skies at Plas
Farm
Have you ever wondered why the sky seems so blue on a crisp
January day compared with at other times of the year? Is it because
of cooler temperatures? Well, in a word – yes. Cooler days
are often due to anticyclonic ‘settled’ conditions meaning
that there is a reduction in atmospheric dust conditions. Dust particles
produce white dispersion that tends to shift the blue colour to
white. In addition, water condenses very close to the ground on
cold anticyclonic days leaving the upper atmosphere very dry and
clear.
I took this picture to illustrate
how nice the sky can be at this time of year at Plas Farm. And I
was testing my zoom lens. As it happens, the farm lies beneath the
main flight path between Heathrow and the United States. On a clear
day, several planes may be seen miles high in the sky, silently
passing by the Welsh countryside en route to far away lands. Their
condensation trails (contrails) stand out against the deep blue
January sky. These white trails that form in the wake of an aircraft
are made from condensed water vapour - exactly like the clouds that
come out of one's mouth on a cold day. If the atmospheric conditions
are right, contrails can last for hours and grow to the sixe of
a rugby pitch - sometimes they even spread until they turn into
cirrus clouds. The only other comment I have about this picture
is that the people in the plane have made the schoolboy error of
electing to go on holiday to Florida rather than a January cottage
holiday in Wales.
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