Not Bank swallows

16 Tuesday Jun 2026

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Bank swallow, birding, birds nesting in Cardiff Bay, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, nesting Sand martins, Sand martin

During last week’s wander around Cardiff Bay and on in to the city I paused for a wonderful 20 minutes to watch the Sand martins flitting constantly in and out of their nests in every available gap, hole and crevice in the walls of the Bay’s many old docks.

Their activity has reached a level of frantic that means I can safely assume they’re now feeding young.

In North America the Sand martin is known as the Bank swallow, something I didn’t know until quite recently when a man tried a little too forcefully to tell me (the term ‘mansplaining’ applies here, I think) that the birds I was watching and listening to were Bank swallows, rather than Sand martins, because that’s what his Merlin bird app told him.

(Note to Merlin users: if you live in the UK, make sure you change your settings to British bird names!)

Southern pill woodlouse

15 Monday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in crustacean

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Armadillidium depressum, British crustaceans, British woodlice, pill woodlice species, Southern pill woodlouse

Until I was filing away my recent photos of this creature, I’d forgotten that I actually saw one – my first, the one shown below – tootling along amongst the stones and sparse vegetation in King Barrow quarry on the Isle of Portland during my visit last September.

I spotted this second beast on a wall in a local street very recently. And, at around 12mm long (measured by taking a photo of my left index finger right next to it), this crustacean really was a beast, and, according to the Naturespot website, they can grow to 20mm so this one wasn’t even fully grown.

Meet the Southern pill woodlouse (Armadillidium depressum), a creature that curls itself into a ball when threatened and which can be distinguished from your common or garden Pill woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) by the way the sections of its armadillo-like outer skin curve up slightly at the ends.

Rosy garlic

14 Sunday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in flowers, plants

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Allium roseum, Allium species, British wildflowers, Broadcroft Quarry Butterfly Reserve, Isle of Portland flora, naturalised plants, naturalised wildflowers, non-native British wildflowers, Rosy garlic

The words ‘rosy’ and ‘garlic’ don’t seem to sit well together, the former associated with the sweet aromas that have inspired perfume makers for centuries, the latter with a pungent smell you either love or hate to cook with and/or eat. Here, though, the word ‘rosy’ relates to the colour of the plant’s flowers rather than its smell and, for me, this is a very attractive flower, particularly when the plants are found growing in good numbers as they were in an area of the Broadcroft Quarry Butterfly Reserve on the Isle of Portland.

As you may have worked out, this plant is a member of the Allium family that includes edible plants like garlic, the various species of onion, leeks and chives, as well as ornamental plants like Three-cornered leek, Field garlic and Star-of-Persia.

Rosy garlic (Allium roseum) is a Mediterranean species, not native to the UK, and is often seen in gardens, from which it has escaped and naturalised in areas of waste ground, mostly in southern Britain, particularly in coastal locations.

Glistening bronze and green

13 Saturday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British beetles, British chafers, chafers, Garden chafer, metallic beetles, Phyllopertha horticola

In Fauna Britannica, Stefan Buczacki explains that ‘“Chafer” is a Middle English word, perhaps meaning “to gnaw” and possibly related to the word “chaff” for the husks of grain’. The several species of chafer eat plants, in particular the roots of plants, so they can be serious pests, of crops and, in the case of the species shown here, the Garden chafer (Phyllopertha horticola), of the plants in your garden. Various species of bird have also learnt that chafer larvae are nutritious, so they can cause damage to lawns and turf when poking about trying to find them.

As I seldom see chafers and don’t have a garden, I was nothing but delighted when I spotted not one but two Garden chafers, their metallic green and bronze colours glistening in the sunshine, in a Cardiff park. As these were quite hairy, I believe that means they had very recently emerged from their pupae; the hairs rub off as they age. The two I found were both in a wild area, of scrub and trees and overgrown Bramble bushes, but chafers are good, if bumbling fliers, so they did have the potential to cause damage to local gardens. Sorry, gardeners!

Galls: Eriophyes similis

12 Friday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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British galls, Eriophyes similis, Eriophyes spinosae, galls, galls caused by mites, galls on Blackthorn, galls on Prunus spinosa, mite galls

I think I’m safe in saying that not many, if any of my readers spend as much of their time staring at, turning over, or fossicking among leaves as I do. So, you may not have noticed that, at this time of year, many of the leaves on Blackthorn (or Sloe) trees (Prunus spinosa) develop lots of little lumps and bumps.

These are galls, caused by the tiny mites Eriophyes similis. My Field Studies Council guide to galls explains that ‘mites are small enough to pierce and feed on individual plant cells, and by so doing to cause surrounding cells to enlarge and multiply.’ The galls start out green and gradually turn a pinkish colour., as shown in my photos, and are often found around the edges of the leaves. This mite species appears to have had a recent change of name, as many older publications label them as Eriophyes spinosae.

Black-clouded longhorn beetle

12 Friday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Black-clouded longhorn beetle, British longhorn beetles, Leiopus linnei, Leiopus linnei/nebulosus, Leiopus nebulosus, Leiopus nebulosus agg., Longhorn beetles

During a recent check of which critters might be lurking on the railings of a local park, I found this, a new beetle for me, a Black-clouded longhorn beetle. That reads like a decisive statement of identification but I’m sure you know now how these things work – when I got home and looked up my new find I found it has quite recently been determined that there are two extremely similar species and they can only be separated when, as the Naturespot website states, ‘the necessary genitalia examination has been carried out by someone with suitable expertise’. The two species are Leiopus nebulosus and Leiopus linnei; Naturespot advises finders to record these as Leiopus nebulosus agg., but, when I recorded my find, I discovered that the only option was Leiopus linnei/nebulosus.

As you can see, this little longhorn beetle (‘longhorn’ refers to the length of the antennae) has dark grey/black markings on a paler background, hence the name ‘black-clouded’. Longhorn beetles are wood eaters, and this one is most often recorded in the proximity of Alder, Lime and Oak trees. And, as I think the photo below shows, it can move quite quickly; this lovely little beetle was not a willing subject for my camera.

A fledgling Long-tailed tit

11 Thursday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, juvenile birds, juvenile Long-tailed tit, long-tailed tit

It’s that time of year when all the young fledgling birds are out and about, following their parents and siblings through the trees, begging for food, learning to forage, constantly calling to stay in contact with each other.

Though it’s often difficult to spot the individual birds now that the foliage on the trees is so lush, it always make me smile to hear them and, occasionally, one bird will pause briefly in the open so, if I’m quick, I’m able to grab a few photos. This juvenile Long-tailed tit recently provided me with just such an opportunity.

The larval webs of the Apple ermine moth

10 Wednesday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Apple ermine, Apple ermine moth larvae, British moths, ermine moth species, moth larvae, moth larval webs, Yponomeuta malinellus

This is the time of year when we regularly see shrubs, bushes, even whole trees draped in what many people assume are massive spiders’ webs but are actually the larval webs of various species of moth. I’ve blogged previously about the webs I see most often, those of the Spindle ermine (June 2021, and again From larva to adult moth, June 2022) and shown you some of the several species of ermine moth, all of which look very similar (More moth appreciation, September 2025).

These latest webs, however, are a new species for me, and their presence on the Apple trees in the community orchard at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park was something of a surprise as, due to the area being sheltered by a surrounding hedge, I pop in to the orchard quite frequently to search there for butterflies, dragonflies and other insects.

Not surprisingly given the trees they’re living on, these are the larvae of the Apple ermine moth (Yponomeuta malinellus); the UK Moth website warns that the adult moths are difficult to distinguish from the other ermines ‘even by genitalia examination’, so the larval foodplant is the most reliable way to identify them. UK Moths also mentions that, once fully grown, the larvae pupate inside ‘white cocoons [which] are arranged neatly side by side in a web beneath a leaf or twig’. Now that’s something I’ll have to look out for.

NFY: Brown argus

09 Tuesday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Aricia agestis, British butterflies, Brown argus, butterfly

May 28th was a very good day for wildlife spotting. Prior to seeing My first Four-spotted chaser of 2026, as I walked around the mostly people-less (this was the school half-term holiday so anywhere people-less was hard to find and a godsend!) outer fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, I checked the locations where I had previously found Brown argus (Aricia agestis), and I was lucky in both places to spot my first and second specimens of the year.

These are gorgeous butterflies but quite tiny so, when they flit up in front of you, you need to watch them closely to see where they land. Many’s the time my eye’s been distracted by another butterfly, or other insect, I’ve lost sight of the Brown argus and not managed to re-find it, so canny is the wee beastie when it comes to disappearing in among the long grass and wildflowers. Fortunately, I’ve learnt that lesson quite well, and these two neither escaped my eye nor my camera lens.

My first Four-spotted chaser

08 Monday Jun 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British dragonflies, dragonfly, Four-spotted Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata, Odonata

I usually see my first Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) earlier in the year – they often appear in late April and can be on the wing right through till mid September – but this year’s weather has been so extraordinary – or perhaps the ‘new’ ordinary i.e. uncharacteristic and unpredictable, with weeks of wet weather followed by a record-breaking heatwave followed by another week of rain – that the emergence dates of everything from odonata to lepidoptera to almost every wildlife species have this year varied wildly from the norm. So, I was rather relieved, on 28 May, to watch this beauty fly up from its grassy perch in the community orchard at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, and even more relieved when it settled again quite quickly and in a location where I was able to get some photographs.