Porcelain fungus revisited

06 Friday Nov 2026

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I do love it when a plan comes together.

When I visited North Cardiff’s Cefn Onn Park recently, in search of the Wood cauliflower fungus, I had quite a thorough mooch around the rest of the park. In particular, I wanted to check a huge old fallen Beech tree where I’d previously found Porcelain fungus (Oudemansiella mucida).

As you can see from the photos here, I was not disappointed. The tree and its many thick fallen branches were all oozing with this stunning fungus, from tiny round balls just appearing from cracks in the bark to large, fully formed specimens, characteristically dripping with moisture.

This is not a fungus I see very frequently and I’ve blogged about it when I have, so for snippets of information see Pretty in Porcelain, October 2025, and The fungus that looks like porcelain, October 2016.

Cranefly: Tipula confusa

05 Thursday Nov 2026

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How handsome is this little cranefly I found perched on a local stucco boundary wall?

I’m fairly sure this is Tipula confusa but the clue to potential confusion in identifying this species is in the name (which, ominously, auto-correct keeps changing to confuse). However, the Naturespot website says that the only confusion species is Tipula rufina, which is on the wing in the spring, whereas T. confusa is a late-flying species that can be seen from September through to November. If my identification subsequently proves to be incorrect, I will update this post.

A Scaup flies in

04 Wednesday Nov 2026

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While I was away in Eastbourne, the first Scaup of the winter, a drake, turned up in Cardiff Bay. Though I was busy catching up on various chores on my first day back at home, fortunately for me, this handsome duck lingered long enough for me to see it the following day. As it was fraternising with a small flock of Tufted ducks on the River Taff approximately 20 feet (6 metres) below the A4232 road bridge, the Scaup wasn’t at a location where it was easy to photograph. And, to make matters worse, it was a bright sunny day, which is always challenging when you’re trying to capture images of a bird with a lot of white/light grey plumage. I hoped the bird would stay a few more days so I could try again but it flew away before I could revisit the location.

Aphid: Cinara brauni

03 Tuesday Nov 2026

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Another day, another new aphid species. I spotted these aphids during an hour’s random leaf-fossicking in a local park.

As you can see, some were egg-laying on pine needles – the eggs are orange when first laid, then turn darker as they develop. From the aphids’ markings, they look to be Cinara brauni, also known as the Corsican pine shoot aphid.

As I’m useless at identifying conifers (must try harder!), I didn’t realise the pine trees in this park were Corsican pine (Pinus nigra), but the Influential Points website, which is my go-to information source for all things aphid, says that though ‘Formerly considered rare in both Europe and the UK (Carter & Maslen (1982)), Cinara brauni has been (accidentally) introduced into several countries through importation of Corsican pines, and is now considered an invasive species.’ That seems a very good reason not to import trees from abroad when there are plenty of British native trees that could be planted instead but, being from New Zealand where we have very strict border controls on flora and fauna importation, I can’t help but be aware of how slack Britain is in this regard.

As I often find with the aphid species I record, there are very few official records of Cinara brauni, either in the Welsh national database (Aderyn), or in iRecord. As the Influential Points website says these aphids are common in southern Britain, I have to assume that is due to under-recording.

First Firecrest of the autumn

02 Monday Nov 2026

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The day before I headed off on my Eastbourne holiday I managed to find my first – quite possibly my only – Firecrest of the autumn, and, amazingly, this was at my first attempt. Maybe I’m slowly getting better at this birding lark! On this occasion, I went looking in a local park where Firecrests were seen last year. It took about an hour of watching, waiting, walking a little way along the path, more watching, more waiting, moving to another part of the park where I’d had lucky previously, watching, waiting … then, ta-daaaah! Not the most crisp of shots, I’ll grant you, but certainly recognisable as a Firecrest, so I’ll take it.

White bryony

01 Sunday Nov 2026

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This is the final blog from my recent trip to East Sussex, a post about a new plant I found on my final day. I’d spent the day meandering around Cuckmere Haven and was reluctant for the holiday to end, so went for a short wander in Friston Forest behind the Seven Sisters Visitor Centre. At one point I came out into a clearing, where a lot of tree trunks were stacked and in the centre of the track between these stacks I noticed this plant and took some photos.

This is White bryony (Bryonia dioica), a plant which my Flora Britannica describes as ‘the only native British member of the gourd or cucumber family’, which makes sense when you see the tendrils curling around whatever the plant could find to support itself. That wonderful publication also provided the following snippets of information:

The whole plant is dangerously poisonous … most toxic part are the roots, which are white, succulent and often as much as six inches thick … cattle sometimes fatally attracted to them … In rural France, there was a popular belief that bryony root would stop or slow down milk production in humans … used to be frequent cases of poisoning amongst weaning mothers … one of the most attractive ornaments of hedgerows and wood margins in the south and east of England (bears string of green berries which turn a brilliant orange-red).…

It seemed odd to me that I hadn’t seen White bryony before but, when I checked the records in the Welsh biodiversity database, I noted that, although it was found in the greater Cardiff area prior to 2005, it has not been recorded since then. I don’t know whether that is a naturally occurring decline or whether humans have removed it because of its toxicity.

Slipper limpets

31 Saturday Oct 2026

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If you’ve ever walked along a shingle beach, you’ll know they can be challenging on the ankles and the leg muscles so I only ventured on to the beaches at Eastbourne and Rye Harbour once at each place. When I did, I noticed an abundance of these shells, which seem to be Slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata). They are gastropod molluscs, and they are an odd shape with, what The Marine Life Information Network website describes as a ‘large aperture [that] has a shelf, or septum, extending half its length’. They also have an odd method of cohabitation: ‘Slipper limpets are commonly found in curved chains of up to 12 animals. Large shells are found at the bottom of the chain, with the shells becoming progressively smaller towards the top.’ Check out the website for an illustration of this, and for more information about these fascinating sea creatures.

Herring gulls

30 Friday Oct 2026

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As you might expect, given I was staying in a town by the seaside, the most numerous bird species I saw during my week in Eastbourne was the Herring gull, through all its juvenile stages to white-and-grey-plumaged adult. So, of course, I took photos of some that caught my eye.

One of the juveniles was gracefully sipping a drink of relatively fresh water from a puddle along the Eastbourne seafront.

Lifeguards might not have been on duty at Eastbourne beach but the many Herring gulls were always keeping an eye out.

This adult was sitting on a rooftop on one of the buildings on Eastbourne pier, hoping one of the many visitors would accidentally drop some morsels of the food they all seemed to be eating.

During my second day at Birling Gap, the weather was quite wild, with occasional driving rain and constant strong winds. The gulls were loving the wind, cliff surfing along the coastline, 30 feet (9 metres) above the beach for them, eye level for me. I loved watching them and took a lot of photos, though the combination of me trying to stand still and the birds’ movement meant most turned out a little blurry.

On the final day of my holiday, spent meandering around the Seven Sisters Country Park, one of the last birds I saw as I headed for the bus was this Herring gull. Though I might be guilty of anthropomorphising the scene, I detect a satisfied grin on the bird’s face as it bashes the crab it’s caught on a rock to break it in to edible pieces.

A pair of Ruff

29 Thursday Oct 2026

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On my last day in East Sussex I returned once again to the Seven Sisters Country Park, the place that had drawn me back to this stunning part of England’s southern coastline, and walked out to the sea and back along both sides of the river, hoping, though not really expecting, to find one last birding surprise before I had to return home. There were Curlew and a couple of Bar-tailed godwits, Brent geese and Wigeon, a few Greylags amongst the big flocks of Canada geese – all lovely to see, of course, just not that something special I was wishing for. And then, when I was almost back at the carpark of the Cuckmere Inn, a little thought popped into my mind – maybe I should take one more quick look along the path out to the western side of the river.

And there they were, quite close to the path, browsing amongst the vegetation of the saltmarsh. Now, I have to admit that, as I don’t see them very often and have never seen a male and female in winter plumage together before, I didn’t initially recognise these waders, and I actually thought they were two different species. Given the substantial difference in their size and colouring, I think you can probably see why.

These are Ruff (Calidris pugnax). As you would expect, the male is the larger bird, coloured in shades of black, white and grey, and the female – actually known as a Reeve – is the smaller, buff and brown coloured bird. Both were beautiful, and I was overjoyed to find and then to spend quite a bit of time watching them. Seeing these two stunning birds was the best possible finale to what had been a wonderful week in East Sussex.

Late Lepidoptera in East Sussex

28 Wednesday Oct 2026

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Though I thought I would probably see a few Clouded yellows and perhaps a late-migrating Red admiral, I didn’t really expect to see many butterflies during my week in East Sussex, and most of the time the weather was too wild and windy for small invertebrates to be on the wing.

Above, one of several Clouded yellows, and, below, a slightly tatty Red admiral – will it attempt the migration flight or simply fade away in southern Britain?

However, as is often the case, when the sun is shining even the smallest sheltered spot can hold some super surprises. This was one of three Common blues I saw flitting about amongst the low-growing wildflowers between areas of scrub on Beachy Head, most unexpected in such an exposed location.

As well as a few Painted ladies, Speckled woods, and Small whites, I was also delighted to spot a couple of Small copper butterflies, a species I certainly didn’t expect to see again this year.

Probably the biggest surprise, though, was this stunning Humming-bird hawk-moth, flitting about the lovely seaside flower gardens along Eastbourne Promenade, at the western end of the beach. A late autumn delight!