Recent Reed buntings

17 Friday Apr 2026

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The Reed bunting is a handsome species, beautifully marked in various shades of brown, a bird that I hear more often than I see, except at this time of year, the start of the breeding season, when the males in particular are more evident and more vocal as they search for mates – not that I’ve managed to get any good photos of males lately.

Of course, even when birds do show themselves a little more, they can still be difficult to photograph, obscured by twigs and branches and burgeoning leaves, as happened with the Reed bunting above. I was more lucky with the bird shown below that was feeding on the tiny seeds in the flower heads of a reed species. Now to find a co-operative male!

Tiny but feisty

16 Thursday Apr 2026

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It may have been tiny but it was feisty! This Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus) was getting annoyed at me invading its personal space when I was trying to get a macro photo, and it jumped at me a couple of times, presumably trying to protect its little territory and scare me off. But it was always attached to a fine piece of silk so, when I pulled back, the little spider dangled for a few seconds before climbing back up to glare at me from its perch on the park railings. I managed to get a couple of photos before leaving it to go about its business.

NFY: Large and Small whites

15 Wednesday Apr 2026

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Monday 6 April dawned bright and sunny, the breeze was light, and the temperature quickly warmed to the high teens Celsius. Conditions were perfect for there being butterflies on the wing in my local parks, so I went out to explore. The first two locations didn’t turn up much – too many people and dogs, but my final stop was just perfect. I saw 14 butterflies of 6 species, two of which were new for the year.

A Large white (Pieris brassicae) (above) appeared first, followed fairly quickly by a Small white (Pieris rapae) (below). Although a Large white is generally larger than a Small white, the size of both species can vary, and the way to positively identify these species is though the size of the dark markings on their wing tips.

A loveliness of ladybirds

14 Tuesday Apr 2026

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I googled to find out what the collective noun is for ladybirds and read that it’s ‘loveliness’, which seems perfectly appropriate. On Easter Saturday, I went for a short mooch around a local park, hoping that the occasional sunny spells might produce butterflies. Unfortunately, the sun was far too occasional and a cool wind blew, but I did find a loveliness of little ladybirds: two 10-spots (Adalia decempunctata)

a 14-spot (Propylea quattuordecimpunctata)

and a Kidney-spot (Chilocorus renipustulatus).

 

Hairy-footed flower bees

13 Monday Apr 2026

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They’re chunky, aggressive, and speedy, and a delight to watch as they zoom around the flower beds, tongues poking out in anticipation of the next slurp from a flower, chasing other flying creatures for no apparent reason, hovering well enough beneath the tubular flowers they prefer to easily be mistaken for a hoverfly.

They’re Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) and, yes, the males really do have long hairs on the lower parts of their legs – maybe they should be called Hobbit bees! Rather than the long hairs exhibited by the male of the species, the females have orange pollen brushes on their hind legs and, in fact, the males and females are very different from each other in appearance – sexually dimorphic, to give this its scientific name. The males are orange-brown, whereas the females are black.

In flower now

12 Sunday Apr 2026

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It seems every time I step out the door now I notice new, different wildflowers in bloom. These are some of this week’s finds; for no particular reason, I seem to have focused on the blue / pink colour tones.

The grassy area on Cardiff Bay’s Barrage is full of Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium), looking very lush.

Cornsalad (Valerianella locusta) is blooming in many of the local areas of waste ground, proving those areas are not really a waste at all.

Just in time for the emergence of the Orange-tip butterflies that use this wildflower as one of their larval plants: Cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis).

One of the Forget-me-not (Myosotis) species, possibly Common (M. sylvatica), though the plant did seem very small.

A wildflower with a lot of variation in its flower colours, Common fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), also known by the vernacular name Earth smoke.

At this time of year, the east and west paddocks at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park are tinged lilac with the flowers of Hairy violet (Viola hirta).

Escaped from its original garden plantings and now adorning the edges of local lanes, Honesty (Lunnaria annua).

This was the scene alongside the bike / pedestrian path around the edge of Grangemoor Park this week, where swathes of beautiful Red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) are in full bloom.

A surprise Slow-worm

11 Saturday Apr 2026

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Though I do sneak a peek under any (not many) refugia I see on the ground, even in the dead of winter, when cold-blooded creatures might be expected to be seeking shelter, I usually find only ants and woodlice. So, it was with little in the way of expectations that I lifted the corner of a mat in a local churchyard last week, only to be shocked, in a wonderful way, by the presence of this Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis).

Alder flies

09 Thursday Apr 2026

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During one of last week’s walks, my route took me along the edge of our two local rivers, first the Ely, then the Taff, and on vegetation along the riverbanks of both, I spotted my first Alder flies of the year.

Though I can’t be sure about which exact species of Alder fly these are – distinguishing between the three British species requires ‘examination of the external genitalia (males) or anal plates (females)’ (Naturespot website) – I can tell you that their species is Sialis, the genus Magaloptera, and they belong to the family that includes lacewings and scorpion flies.

The Naturespot website also relates that the ‘adults only last long enough to mate and deposit eggs which are laid in large masses on vegetation near to water’. These are not something I’ve ever seen but I found images of the eggs (and the larvae) on the UK Wildlife website, so I’m planning some leaf turning next time I walk by those two rivers. Fingers crossed!

Lily beetle

08 Wednesday Apr 2026

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When you’re a bright red beetle, you’re probably trying to convince any potential predators that you taste so foul you’re not worth eating but it also means that it’s hard to hide from inquisitive humans, like me, especially when you’re sitting in plain sight on Alexanders flowers.

The gardeners amongst my readers may recognise this beetle and, if you grow lilies, you may have seen a beetle like this nibbling on the leaves of your lilies, hence its name: Lily beetle. The Naturespot website calls this insect Scarlet lily beetle but, when I recorded it, the insect’s name came up simply as Lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii).

As I don’t have a garden and don’t often visit ornamental gardens, the Lily beetle shown here was only my second ever sighting of this vibrant beetle in ten years of staring at plants. This is not particularly surprising though, as I’ve just been reading that this species only came to Britain in the early 1900s, presumably imported on lily plants, but, in the century since, it has managed to spread throughout Britain. That’s an impressive achievement for a beetle that’s only 10mm long.