A family walk in the Brecon Beacons near Ystradfellte turned up some interesting natural history. Almost at the very start of the walk a female Keeled Skimmer landed straight in front of me and insisted on a picture. I obliged. Despite the colour these guys are easily missed the female is bright yellow and the male bright blue. They are not the biggest, this specimen was about 7cm nose to tail, one of the smallest dragonflies I've seen this year. In perfect condition and bright, I would not be surprised if it was not recently unwrapped. Lots of boggy ground and ditches lined the paths and hawking along these ditches was a Gold Ringed Dragonfly. It landed somewhere in the reeds and had not been for my 4 year olds eyes I would not have found it. Two dragonflies in less than half an hour - saw no more all day.
An old rockfall down by the river had become covered in map lichens. It was great to see these lichens competing for a bit of open space - and it made for an interesting photograph. The waterfalls themselves were great, my favourite was this one (see bottom) Sgwd y Pannwr, impressive.
Click on the captions for higher resolution images.
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