Rust: Puccinia convolvuli

07 Friday Aug 2026

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It’s been a while since I found a new rust, or any type of fungi at all, so this one came as a nice surprise when I was checking bindweed leaves for leafmines of the tiny moth Bedellia somnulentella.

At first glance you might not realise this was a rust fungus as its effects simply looked like blotches on the upper surface of the leaf.

However, if you looked on the underside of the leaf, you could see the blotches were covered with tiny pustules, the fungus’s aecia from which spores are released.

As many rust fungi are plant specific, this was a relatively easy one to identify – it’s Puccinia convolvuli. Though I haven’t noticed it before when checking bindweed leaves, I was still surprised to learn that this is a relatively rare fungus in Britain, having only been discovered here in 2009 and not having spread far since that initial discovery. You can read more on this blog by Jeremy Bartlett, a Norfolk-based naturalist who I follow on social media.

A Jersey tiger summer

06 Thursday Aug 2026

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Have you seen a Jersey tiger moth this summer?

Though 2025 was a good year locally for this stunning moth, I seem to have seen even more this year. I don’t know whether this is simply because they are now so comfortably settled in my area that they’re breeding in good numbers or if it’s yet another effect of this hottest of summers – perhaps both statements are true. Also, the winter of 2025-26 was quite mild, meaning the over-wintering caterpillars would have had a better chance of surviving though till their pupation in the spring.

For the first time I’ve even seen Jersey tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria) mating. In fact, I almost stood on them – it was just lucky that I looked down at my feet before stepping off a local path to look more closely at a plant, as they were on the ground amongst the vegetation and leaf litter. Fortunately for them, they can now go on to produce even more Jersey tigers for me to enjoy next year.

Surprise Emerald damselflies

05 Wednesday Aug 2026

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More from 23 July, and the wander around Forest Farm Nature Reserve that I blogged about yesterday …
I’d enjoyed a lovely walk alongside the river Taff, along the various different paths through the reserve, beside the canal, and was heading for the train when I decided to check the orchard pond one more time. My decision paid off!

There still weren’t many large dragonflies but something about some of the blue damselflies made me look at them more closely. My eyesight isn’t the best so I wasn’t able to pick out exact species indicators but their flight pattern and colouration looked different enough for me to take a couple of photos to check more closely. Emerald damselflies!

I’d only seen Emerald damselflies (Lestes sponsa) three times previously so I was delighted to find them at Forest Farm. And, after checking iRecord later at home, I discovered they’ve been recorded there since 2014, though not every year – I’m not sure if that’s down to a lack of damseflies some years or a lack of people recording their sightings. I’ll certainly be checking for them again next year, and this sighting has also prompted me to check iRecord for other species I might have overlooked.

Migrant hawkers are in flight

04 Tuesday Aug 2026

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It was 23 July and I’d taken the train to north Cardiff for a morning wandering around Forest Farm Nature Reserve. I was hoping for dragons along the Glamorgan Canal but thought I’d take a look around the orchard pond and fields before heading that way. There were quite a few blue-coloured damselflies around the pond, a female Emperor that was egg-laying amongst the vegetation, and a couple of Common darters – all nice to see but nothing to get the heart pumping, and a walk around the orchard and nearby field didn’t produce a single dragon. I decided to head for the canal but, as I was passing the old farm buildings (now used by Cardiff Park rangers and a couple of conservation organisations), I decided to detour along a path behind those buildings. And I’m so glad I did because I had only just turned on to this path when a large dragon flew up. I immediately froze and, fortunately, for me, it settled again on a nearby plant. My first Migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) of the year!

Since that day I’ve seen at least ten more, though only one stopped long enough for a distant photo, only good for recording purposes. Last Saturday, five of these gorgeous dragons were flying together over a single back garden just a short walk from where I live – they can often be seen in groups like this, constantly flying back and forth. And later that same day I had another three patrolling a path along the edge of a Cardiff park – I watched for perhaps 15 minutes but none stopped flying and it was too hot to linger longer.

Painted lady caterpillars

03 Monday Aug 2026

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Some of the 20-plus Painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) in yesterday’s enchanting wildflower meadow were faded so probably migrants, but many had colours that were rich and vibrant, leading me to think they were most likely locally bred and recently emerged. This new generation contains the butterflies that will migrate from Britain in the autumn, returning to the locations where their parents originated.

Perhaps due to the large numbers of Painted ladies that arrived here this year, I have, for the first time, seen many Painted lady caterpillars. My butterfly bible, Peter Eeles’s Lifecycles of British & Irish Butterflies, tells me the female lays up to 500 eggs, each singly, most often on thistles but also on burdocks, Common nettle, and mallows amongst others.

After it hatches, the larva spins itself a little web in which to live, eating away the surrounding leaf, until its food is exhausted. It them moves to a new leaf and spins another web (as the caterpillar in the photo above is doing), and so it continues for approximately four weeks when it reaches its fifth instar and is ready to pupate.

These miniature leaf-and-silk structures are quite obvious on plants like thistles; you can usually see the caterpillar inside and there is an accumulation of frass in the bottom of the structure. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to find a pupa – that is also found inside a specially spun silk tent of leaves … maybe next year.

A meadow full of Painted ladies

02 Sunday Aug 2026

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I had a different blog planned for today (though it was also about this butterfly, and will follow tomorrow) but, after spending a magical hour in this wildflower meadow today, spellbound at the sight of at least twenty, probably more Painted ladies, I just had to share my enchantment with you.

Chiffchaff vs caterpillar

01 Saturday Aug 2026

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It seems mad to be writing this during the continuing heat of this hottest of summers but, for our feathered friends, autumn migration has begun.

You may have noticed fewer Swifts screaming through our skies, Swallows amassing on high wires, and, though many now remain to over-winter, fewer Chiffchaffs chiffchaffing from the trees where they were born and raised.

This particular Chiffchaff was one of several in the local coastal fields, feeding up before setting off on the next leg of its flight south.

It was searching this way and that, trying to find nutritious snacks, only to find its next snack was dangling, quite well hidden, above its head. The caterpillar didn’t give up easily but, after some strong tugs, the Chiffchaff won the day.

The moth that acts like it’s a bird

31 Friday Jul 2026

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We don’t have Hummingbirds in the UK but I used to see them quite regularly when I lived in Peru so, when I see the creature in today’s images, my mind always goes back to my time living in South America.

Of course, this creature is smaller than even the smallest hummingbird, but not by as much as you might think. A Google search tells me that the Bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest, ranges in length from 5.5cms for a male to 6.1cms for a female, whereas a Humming-bird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is between 3 to 5cms.

I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of Humming-bird hawk-moths this summer, more than I remember seeing in previous years and, as this moth migrates to the UK from southern Europe and North Africa, I presume the increased sightings are yet another effect of the hot south-easterly winds blowing from the Continent and our continuing record-breaking heatwaves.

Though they are super to watch when they’re hovering to feed, these moths can be tricky to photograph. They rarely stay still for long so sharp images are almost impossible to capture though, actually, I don’t mind that too much as it does give a sense of their movement.

NFY: Grayling

30 Thursday Jul 2026

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This is the last post from my recent mini-break in Weymouth, another first butterfly sighting for 2026 from my first meander around the former quarries on the Isle of Portland. These are, of course, Graylings (Hipparchia semele).

By happy coincidence, the Graylings had just started emerging when I visited. During my first walk around Tout and King Barrow quarries, on 9 July, I only saw two of these cryptically coloured butterflies. Just two days later, another quarry exploration produced more than 20 Graylings, with several flitting around me at once in one particular location, much to my delight.

I usually take the train up one of the local Welsh valleys to Aberbargoed coal spoil tip in July to see the only local population of these butterflies that is accessible to me as a non-driver. This year, with much of Britain sweltering under our third heatwave of the year, I haven’t made that trek, so I was even more grateful to have seen such numbers of Grayling in Dorset.

Common terns and their chicks

29 Wednesday Jul 2026

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During June and July, one of the highlights of every visit to RSPB Lodmoor is watching and listening to the Common terns in the process of raising the next generation of Common terns. They share the artificial breeding ‘islands’ with Lesser black-backed gulls, mostly harmoniously, but the noise generated by adults and offspring communicating with each other and the almost constant neighbourhood disputes has to be heard to be believed. It’s rowdy and raucous but in a rather joyous, life-affirming kind of way.

During my recent visit, from 8 to 15 July, most of the terns’ offspring had already fledged but were still being fed by their parents, so were spending their time sitting along the shoreline of the various pools of water. Sometimes they sat alone or with their siblings; at other times, one parent sat nearby, standing guard, while the other parent was away fishing for food.

However, it seems some pairs of Common terns had started the breeding process several weeks later than the others. A couple were still sitting on eggs and, during the week I was there, some tiny chicks hatched. They were so small and well camouflaged that it was difficult to see them, even with binoculars, let alone get clear photographs, but I hope you can pick them out amongst the stones in the images above and below.