Turtle bug

23 Monday Mar 2026

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I found this little bug dead when I was picking up small rotting logs to see what might be lurking beneath, in a meander around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park three weeks ago. I thought it was a Tortoise bug (Eurygaster testudinaria) and recorded it as such but my identification has since been corrected.

Turns out I had confused Turtle with Tortoise! This is, in fact, a species of shieldbug, a Turtle bug (Podops inuncta). Though I don’t think it’s clear in my photos, this species has ‘two small projections on the pronotum at each side of the head’ (thank you, Nature Spot).

The habitat in which I found it also fits with what the Nature Spot website says: ‘it is strongly ground-dwelling and rarely found unless searched for’; that explains why I’ve never seen one before, and encourages me to keep lifting up those small rotting logs.

Springtime invasives

22 Sunday Mar 2026

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Yes, the sight of a large field of flowering bluebells is the epitome of springtime but not when they are Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica), which are highly invasive non-native plants, and I do wish people in their home gardens and local authorities in public parks would stop their mass plantings of this species, especially if the area is near a woodland. As well as being invasive and out-competing native British bluebells, Spanish bluebells will also hybridise with them thus threatening the genetic integrity of the native species.

And the same goes for Three-cornered leeks (Allium triquetrum). They do look attractive, and many people who don’t know their plants well get one whiff of these plants and think they are Wild garlic (Allium ursinum), but Three-cornered leeks are another highly invasive non-native plant that will spread like wildfire if left unchecked. In fact, they are now such a problem that they are listed in Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, making it an offence to plant or cause them to grow in the wild.

Singing Dunnocks

21 Saturday Mar 2026

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If you live in the UK, you may not necessarily have realised it but I’m sure most of you will have heard at least one singing Dunnock already this year; they’ve been singing here in south Wales for at least a month, and, in fact, the epithet modularis in their scientific name (Prunella modularis) is Latin for ‘modulating’, i.e. varying the strength, tone, or pitch of your voice, something the Dunnock is very good at.

Today’s ‘did you know?’ information comes from the Woodland Trust website:

Dunnocks can raise several broods of chicks per year. This means the population can be maintained despite some nests being taken over by cuckoos.

As I’m sure most of you are aware, the Cuckoo practises brood parasitism, laying its eggs in the nests of certain other bird species, and then taking no part in the rearing of its offspring.

New cat: Large yellow underwing

20 Friday Mar 2026

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When the days are wet and/or gloomy, insects hiding deep in the vegetation and birds difficult to see and/or photograph, I often resort to getting my hands dirty, turning over small boulders and/or picking up small logs and fallen branches to see what lies beneath. This is a recent, rather unexpected find from one of those days, the larva of a Large yellow underwing moth (Noctua pronuba), which, apparently feeds at night and hides underground – or, in this case, under log, in the daytime. You can see images of other larvae and the adult moth on the UK Moths website but I’ve also posted images here, in my blog Moths Matter, August 2023.

Curious Coal tit

19 Thursday Mar 2026

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During a recent walk through the woodland at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, this little Coal tit (Periparus ater) popped up to say hello. Well, that statement’s probably not entirely accurate – I imagine it was much more interested in whether or not I was carrying any seed or other delicious titbits a small hungry bird might like to eat. And, as this particular Coal tit paused long enough for me to take its photo (which they often don’t do), I happily rewarded its curiosity.

Today’s amazing bird fact is brought to you courtesy of the BTO’s Facebook and Instagram accounts (posted in January 2026). Did you know that, although the average Coal tit has a two-year lifespan, the oldest Coal Tit yet recorded in Britain and Ireland ‘was ringed in Argyll & Bute, and recorded alive in the same place 9 years, 2 months and 25 days later!’

A huddle of 7-spots

18 Wednesday Mar 2026

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When the sun deigns to appear from behind the seemingly interminable clouds, ladybirds venture out to sit on leaves, especially Stinging nettles I’ve noticed, to soak in the sun’s warmth. Yet our spring weather is currently so fickle that many ladybirds are still, as they frequently do during the colder winter months, happily huddling together, like these five 7-spots (Coccinella septempunctata) I spotted last week in a local park.

Busy Blue tits

17 Tuesday Mar 2026

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The garden is busy with birds, large and small, flitting about the branches of the trees and large shrubs, peeking in to conveniently sized niches and crevices or picking out the perfect little twigs and small branches to fit into their planned constructions, searching for moss and lichen and dropped feathers to soften the interior of their chosen cavities or nests for the eggs and chicks soon to be laid within. Amongst them are the crevice-nesting Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), lots of them, chasing each other, singing out their partnership claims, advertising their personal charms. I’m convinced, but did you know (thanks to the Woodland Trust website for this interesting snippet):

Like all birds, blue tits can see ultra-violet light – the front of their head glows brightly under UV light, and this is how females are thought to choose their partners.

Cuttlebones

16 Monday Mar 2026

Posted by in molluscs

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I’m heading south to Weymouth again today so, by the time this post is published, I’ll hopefully be heading back from my first walk around Lodmoor. Maybe, as I headed to my guesthouse, I’ll have crunched my way along the pebbles at the top of the beach and found more of these Cuttlebones, the shells from inside the Common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), a type of cephalopod, the class of mollusc that includes the octopus and squid. (The photos here show both sides of the same cuttlebone.)

 

I first saw cuttlebones when I was a child. My nana, who lived just a couple of houses away from us, used to have a Budgerigar as a pet (she probably had several over the years but they were always called Johnny), and she used to buy cuttlebones to put in the cage. Budgies, and possibly other caged birds, gnaw on the bone to get the calcium and other minerals they need.

No woodland here

15 Sunday Mar 2026

Posted by in flowers, spring, wildflowers

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Wood anemone is meant to be ‘one of the most faithful indicators of ancient woodland’ and, from the plants I’ve seen previously that would seem mostly to be true.

However, the Wood anemones pictured here were something of an anomaly, growing on the sloping banks of the lake in Cardiff’s Roath Park. The lake is an artificial creation; the Nant Fawr stream was dammed in the early 1890s to create a lake over what was formerly a boggy marsh.

Family comes first

14 Saturday Mar 2026

Posted by in animals, mammal

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This sighting, on Wednesday evening, was the first time I’d seen one of our resident Foxes this year, and now we have one less resident Woodpigeon. In his defence, and judging by how quickly Mr Fox disappeared in the direction of his den and reappeared without his prey, I think Mrs Fox probably has cubs and he’s busy feeding her.