The Turnstone and the Slipper limpets

10 Tuesday Nov 2026

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It seems I’m not the only one to have noticed all the Slipper limpets while wandering along the English south coast’s shingle beaches (see my blog of the same name, published on 31 October).

The difference, though, between me and the Turnstone is that I was only noticing the limpets’ empty shells, whereas the Turnstone is looking for those that still contain something edible.

Somewhat surprisingly, this avian sleuth seemed to be finding quite a lot of shells worthy of its investigative skills, and even some that contained remnants of limpets, which it then proceeded to extract using its strong beak.

Though I didn’t take photos, I noticed that the Carrion crow population that inhabits Weymouth’s beaches were also very adept at locating intact Slipper limpet shells. These they would grab with their beaks, fly up to a height of around 20 feet above the pavement, then let go of, sometimes repeating these actions several times, until the shell had smashed open sufficiently to feast upon the unfortunate creature living within. Slipper limpets are obviously quite delicious!

Common snipe out and about

09 Monday Nov 2026

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When I do manage to see Common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) – usually known simply as Snipe, my views are often just fleeting glimpses of birds skulking in reedbeds, very well camouflaged and partially obscured by vegetation.

So you can perhaps understand why one of the highlights of my four visits to RSPB Lodmoor last week was seeing a lot of Snipe out in the open. The RSPB website mentions that ‘In winter, birds from northern Europe join resident birds’, which may explain why I saw so many Snipe and why they were spending more time in the open than usual.

Their plumage is stunning, a complexity of browns and buffs, streaked to ensure they blend well with the reedbeds in which they live.

And that sturdy long straight bill is perfectly designed to probe deep into the mud to find the small invertebrates on which they feed. I took this very short video to show one of the Snipe in foraging mode.

Arty-farty Common reeds

08 Sunday Nov 2026

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When I read that my Weymouth guesthouse was offering a 10% discount on accommodation from late October through to January, well, of course, I had to take advantage of the offer so, earlier this week, I had three and a half days back by the seaside. I have established a routine for the afternoon of my arrival – after five hours sitting on three trains – of checking in, dumping my things in my room, then striding the mile along the beach front to RSPB Lodmoor to get some fresh air and exercise, and my first look at what birds are around. This visit, as the sun is now setting around 4.30pm, I was treated to a lovely sunset as I walked the Lodmoor circuit – useless for photographing birds but, as you see, I was tempted to take a few arty-farty shots of the reeds (they’re not the best – I’m not really a landscape photographer!).

At this time of year, though large parts of the reedbeds at Lodmoor are left untouched (to provide habitat for birds like Bitterns and Bearded tits, as well as other creatures), extensive areas are cut; the Dorset Wildlife Trust website explains that this is necessary to prevent the reedbeds being encroached upon by scrub and, subsequently, trees.

The most common plant species in these reedbeds is Common reed (Phragmites australis), which is a very hardy plant and spreads easily through creeping rhizomes beneath the soil surface. As these reeds can grow to a height of 4 metres, the cut reeds can be used to thatch buildings, according to the Dorset Wildlife Trust website, though I don’t know if this is the case with those that are cut at Lodmoor.

Though I imagine many of you will be familiar with these reeds – as their name implies, they are common, I thought I should also include a daytime photo so walked past a local reedbed alongside Cardiff Bay during today’s walk to take this final photo.

Little grebe on a mission

07 Saturday Nov 2026

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During a recent walk around the parks of north Cardiff, I took a turn around Roath Park Lake. The lake is home to a large population of birds; some – Canada and Greylag geese, Mute swans, Coots – are resident year round, others appear in the autumn to over-winter at the lake, so I always like to check on any new arrivals at this time of year. This particular day was warm and sunny, and I was leaning on the railing at the southern edge of the lake, where a wide bench-lined path runs across the top of the embankment dam, when I spotted this Little grebe. These birds usually shy away but this little one swam straight towards me, intent on checking out the water at the edge of the embankment, presumably having had luck with its fishing there before. And, as I watched, I was pleased to see it was lucky with its fishing again that day.

Porcelain fungus revisited

06 Friday Nov 2026

Posted by in autumn, fungi

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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.