A busy time of year

It's a busy time of year. Following last weeks otter and water vole surveys, yesterday I did an extended phase 1 habitat survey of an upland site in South Wales, and then later in the evening walked a bat transect at the same site, the latter taking 3.5 hours to walk up the hill, do the survey and walk back down again in the dark. I didn't get back to my hotel until 12:45am.

Today I was back again, this time to do a NVC (vegetation) survey. When I'd finished for the day I then headed over to another upland site nearby and did a nightjar surey (four churring birds recorded). Tomorrow I have two Vantage Point (bird) surveys to do at the first upland site and continue with the NVC.

Year 226: (Nightjar)

I found this perfect tussock of Hare's-tail cotton grass Eriophorum vaginatum growing in the middle of a patch of Sphagnum fallax.

Star sedge Carex echinata.

Pill sedge Carex pilulifera. It had a very long, thin culm which wasn't capable of supporting the weight of the inflorescence, as you can see in the photo below where I had to hold it up to take the photo.

Under attack!!! Millions of midges during last nights bat transect.