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.

Local Little egrets

13 Friday Mar 2026

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With these birds spreading rapidly throughout Britain, it was only a matter of time before Little egrets became frequent visitors, possibly even residents in my local area, especially as there are areas of moorland and wet fields bordered by trees where they should feel at home.

Judging by the number of times I’ve seen them in a couple of the local horse fields, they are also very comfortable there (one bird on 21 December, two on 8 February, and two on Wednesday, 11 March). As you can probably see, the ground has been well churned up by the hooves of the grazing horses. That disturbance, together with the amount of fertiliser the horses deposit, means the soil is probably full of delicious worms and small invertebrates.

On Wednesday, though there was a bitter wind blowing, we finally had bright sunshine between periods of large scudding clouds. It was the one day recently that I’d have been happy not to have had the glare of the sun, which made it difficult to photograph these two very white Little egrets, particularly as they were very close to the path I was on and quite settled, but I still really enjoyed having such close views of them feeding.

Cormorants, young and old

12 Thursday Mar 2026

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Though a handsome blend of browns, sometimes with a white belly, the juvenile Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is a bland bird compared to the adult, especially in the breeding season.

The adult shown below is a fine example of how striking these birds look during the breeding season, with their white ‘manes’ and thigh patch. (These two photos are the same bird, viewed from the left and right sides, as the bird held its wings low against its side in the first photo, and I wanted to get a photo showing the thigh patch.)

An interesting fact I didn’t know about the Cormorant but have just read on the RSPB website:

Despite being an agile underwater hunter, its feathers aren’t waterproof. In fact, wet feathers help this species to move quicker when on the prowl, reducing the bird’s buoyancy as it darts through the depths.

And, I guess, that’s why we often see Cormorants standing with their wings open, to dry them once they’ve finished fishing.

Bay bunnies

11 Wednesday Mar 2026

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Given how actively anti-environment the actions of Cardiff Council and its various subsidiaries, like the Harbour Authority, are, I’m amazed these European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have managed to survive within the official boundary of Cardiff Port. But survive they have.

Maybe their survival is helped by the fact that they are easily seen by the hundreds of people who walk or bike past this area every day; if the rabbits disappeared, people would notice and ask why, how, when, who.

I hope they continue to flaunt their survival, as they currently do, by grazing on the one grassy field in the area and on top of the humps of now-vegetated rubbish material adjacent to the footway and cycle path.

With a background of the dark blue cranes using to move cargo and the tall lights that illuminate the port, the rabbits are an incongruous sight but that just makes me like them all the more.