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Erwain

@erwain.bsky.social

230 followers 240 following 66 posts

Ecologist, Welsh (a dysgu Cymraeg), serial hobbyist, intermittent ultra runner, druid-ish, parent to human offspring, collector of bones, feathers and odd bits. Averagely weird in an AuDHD way while mostly surviving off carbs, coffee, and cuddles.

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Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Nov 21

Thought I'd pin an intro - hello😊 I'm a consultant ecologist, general naturalist, and chair of the Pembrokeshire Bat Group. Late diagnosed (in my early 40s) Autistic ADHD. I sometimes run/walk ultras, write bad poetry, read books less than I'd like, and enjoy bothering castles & prehistoric sites :)

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Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Jul 10

Moths can be temporarily kept in a fridge for later ID. Two points however:
1. Ensure fridge is cold enough.
2. Keep them in a box without a moth sized hole in the lid.
Ignore & you may later open the fridge to get milk for a cuppa & immediately be assaulted by a face full of moths... 🙈 #moths

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 19

For a brief period of time during my undergrad degree I went right off oystercatchers (did a field project on their optimal feeding strategy which was dominated by measuring a *lot* of limpet shells collected from nest sites) but 20 years later I've thoroughly forgiven them & am rather fond of them.

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 18

You can't fool me, that's clearly a piece of broken birch twig 😉

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 18

The swallows are busy nest building in the toilet block at Martin's Haven. They return every year - I remember them nesting there in the early 90s when I used to go to Skokholm as a teen. #Wales #Pembrokeshire #Birding #Spring #Wildlife #Nature #PembrokeshireCoast

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Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 16

Today's chough looking for lunch. Bit of a hard call as to whether choughs or ravens are my favourite corvid #birding #nature #Wales #PembrokeshireCoast

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 16

Perfect weather for Skomer today (and I'm back over on Sunday) and as always the puffins were very obliging. However, before I got on the boat I had an even more obliging chough feeding right next to me on the mainland. Usually I just get them calling overhead when on a run. #birding #Wales #nature

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 14

Rude if you ask me.

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 14

Here is not a bad part of the world to live. Skylarks sang the sun to sleep this evening and the cliffs are blooming with thrift, sea campion and spring squill #nature #sunset #Wales #thrift

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 14

Spring squill is up there near the top of my list of favourite flowers. I'm on the Pembrokeshire coast where it's pretty ubiquitous this time of year and I think I was an adult before I twigged it's not actually as widespread as I grew up assuming (easy to take things for granted!)

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · May 9

Accurate representation of my morning today, during my BTO breeding bird survey. 😉😆 #birdwatching #nature #wildlife #ecologist

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 25

@btobirds.bsky.social I've just seen my first swift of the year while at the #NationalBotanicGardenOfWales It's scimitar wings stood out wonderfully compared to adjacent swallows and martins. Looking forward to the screaming sound of summer! #nature #BritishWildlife

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 20

Mental health hasn't been great for a while but often a run gives me a brief boost. Today was not one of those days though and it was a grey tinged slog. Sun shone though, & I was serenaded by willow warblers & skylarks, & was shouted at by a chough, the campest of corvids. #trailrun #mentalhealth

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 18

A selection of today's #ADHD ( #AuDHD) moments... superglued myself to the glue tube, forgot to eat til 4pm, started task A then got distracted by Task B & forgot Task A existed, sent MIL texts meant for husband, removed Pyrex dish from cupboard but forgot I was meant to hold it so...photo. #tired

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 16

As an ecologist who's spent my entire life by the coast my knowledge makes an embarrassingly rapid halt well before the high tide mark. Fortunately my nudibranch loving 16yo makes up for it & we recently shared a fab training day run by the Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum. #MarineBiology #Rockpooling

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 16

Morning run internal chat was me wondering why everything felt difficult & that clearly I'm an unfit waste of space, everything is awful, & that rabbit that just sprinted across my path was clearly mocking me.

Then I remembered the two glasses of wine last night. Oops.
#Running #TrailRunning

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 14

I've noticed far more inverts (pollinators included) over the past couple of weeks in Pembs than I did during the previous couple of years at this time. (Excluding today's rain which I'm grateful for, the streams having been looking a little shallow and muddy areas hard & rutted). But it's relative.

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 14

Very much so :)

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Apr 14

Donated another pint of the good stuff today after a 4 year hiatus, in exchange for a pack of 3 gingernuts and two club biscuits. Winning at life. Hopefully my rather boring A+ blood will help three other people win at life too. #BloodDonor #WelshBloodService #GwasanaethGwaedCymru #GiveBlood

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Mar 16

Inland for today's #trailrun. The cattle haven't been let out after winter yet so safe for now. Lots of signs of badger activity & birdsong include chaffinch, bullfinch, greenfinch, blackbird, songthursh, robin & goldcrest. Buzzard (Buteo buteo) overhead too #ecologist #nature #birds #outdoors

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Mar 13

A short coastpath run today. Skylarks singing, a pair of choughs calling, the fulmurs are gathering in their cliff-ledge colonies - and I'm making the most of my favourite places before the tourists arrive in a couple of months and I retreat. #Nature #TrailRunning #PembrokeshireCoast #Home

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Feb 9

Had one in my trap last year. My first (and so far only) one. They're beautiful things.

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Feb 9

Definitely a beak and a half! I usually only tend to see them from behind after I've inadvertently flushed them from a soggy patch of undergrowth.

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Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Feb 9

It's my youngest's birthday today & she requested a nature themed/cottage core cake with owls. I've always made my kids' birthday cakes with varying levels of decorating "success", but this one I'm proud of. Much like an excited 5yo with a painting they did - Look! Look at it! 😂 #nature #cake

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Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Feb 9

They really are. 😁

Erwain @erwain.bsky.social · Feb 7

Aww, look at that greater tussock sedge, being all great and tussocky. It's like the Cousin It of the plant world.

#nature #plants #botany

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