10 Saturday Sep 2016
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that
it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure
is a need and an ecstasy.
from Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
09 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
Autumn crocus, Bute Park, Colchium autumnale, Naked Boy, Naked Ladies, Roath Park, Son-of-the-father
My colleagues at my voluntary job raised their eyebrows and smirks appeared on a couple of faces when I said I was going to photograph Naked Ladies after work last Tuesday, but it was true. I’d seen some in Cardiff’s Roath Park the previous weekend and I wanted to see if they were also performing in Bute Park … and they were!
Of course, I’m referring to the Autumn crocus, Colchium autumnale … what were you thinking?! As well as the common name Naked Ladies, they are also known as Naked boys and Sons-before-the-father because of their growth habit – they produce leaves in the springtime that die back over the summer and then flower, leafless, in the autumn. Their scientific name comes from Colchis, a place in Georgia from where they are believed to have originated, and they are not actually crosuses at all (crocuses are Iridiceae not Colchicaceae).
Though many of the flowers I saw had been nibbled, presumably by squirrels or slugs, the colchicine chemical these Naked Ladies contain is extremely poisonous and many people have died over the years from mistaking the leaves for wild garlic. Look, admire, enjoy but don’t touch!
08 Thursday Sep 2016
Posted in autumn, nature, wildflowers
“It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in ’em,” said Captain Jim. “When I ponder on them seeds I don’t find it nowise hard to believe that we’ve got souls that’ll live in other worlds. You couldn’t hardly believe there was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust, let alone colour and scent, if you hadn’t seen the miracle, could you?” ~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams
(Lucy Montgomery was the author of Anne of Green Gables; the House of Dreams is the fifth in her series of nine books about Anne Shirley. Captain Jim was the lighthouse keeper.)
07 Wednesday Sep 2016
Tags
Bolivian animal, Lagidium peruanum, Northern Viscacha, Northern Vizcacha, Peruvian animal, viscacha, vizcacha
The impending arrival of yet another World Wildlife Wednesday sent me trawling through my photos to see what other examples of international wildlife I had in my archives, which resulted in a wonderful hour or more of reminiscing about past travel experiences. I love how photos bring back such amazing memories.
But I digress. I first met this furry little creature in November 2011 in Bolivia, on the edge of the highest desert in the world, the Siloli. Looking a bit like a cross between a hare and a squirrel, the Northern Viscacha (Lagidium peruanum) is actually part of the Chinchilla family. It lives in large colonies that are split into family groups, and it eats a wide range of plant matter, settling for almost anything it can find growing in such a harsh, rocky environment. It also eats bread – probably not the best thing to feed a wild animal but that was all the members of my group had to entice the beasties down from their rocky hideaways for some photos.
I next met the Viscacha in May 2012 in Peru, at Macchu Pichu, sleepily lazing away the afternoon in a nice sunny spot amongst the rocks. We were mutually surprised to see each other but, after rapidly firing off a few quick shots, I backed off and the two little Vissies quickly went back to sleep. They were very cute!
06 Tuesday Sep 2016
Tags
Coenosia sp, Dagger fly, Empis sp, Eriothrix rufomaculata, Eurithia anthophila, Flesh fly, flies, fly, Graphomya maculata, Sarcophaga sp
Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched? Often, when I’m out on my wanders with wildlife, I get a little tingling in the back of my neck as if my extra-sensory perception is trying to tell me I’m being stared at. When I look around, there’s never a person or a bird or an animal but there’s often a fly, just sitting quietly on a leaf or a twig, minding its own business though focussing its gigantic eyes in my direction. Is it wondering if I’d make a tasty meal? Is it curious about what I’m doing? Is it staring in case I might turn up something it could eat? Is it monitoring a potential threat? Do flies think?
I will never know the answers to those questions but their watchfulness has made me notice the flies around me and, amazingly, some of them are rather lovely little creatures. May I present to you: a Flesh fly (Sarcophaga sp.); one of the Muscidae family, Coenosia sp.; Eurithia anthophila; Eriothrix rufomaculata; a Dagger fly (Empis sp.); and Graphomya maculata.
(By the way, that feeling of being stared at has a label, scopaesthesia, and, despite several series of scientific lab experiments, the phenomenon remains unproven. In my case, the tingling is probably a tiny spider I’ve picked up amongst the bushes.)
05 Monday Sep 2016
It must be autumn – even if I chose to ignore the cooler evenings, the nights drawing in and the falling leaves, I can’t ignore the gorgeous cyclamen flowering in my local park!
The Wild cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) is not native to Britain – it hails from the Mediterranean countries, though has, over time, made its way into more northern European countries, including Britain, where garden escapees have gradually become naturalised in many of the southern counties and here in Wales.
The word cyclamen comes originally from the Greek for circle, cyclamīnos, which is a nod to its round-shaped tuber, and the species name, hederifolium, is a combination of the Latin hedera (meaning ivy) and folium (meaning leaf), which refers to the shape and patterns on cyclamen leaves. More interesting though is its common name, sowbread, which apparently came about because pigs like to eat cyclamen, a fact reflected not only in the English common name but in several other languages as well: pain de pourceau in French, pan porcino in Italian, varkensbrood in Dutch, and ‘pigs’ manjū’ in Japanese.
04 Sunday Sep 2016
Tags
bioblitz, Common carpet moth, Common rustic moth, Cwm Saerbren Woodland, Lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, moth, Small fan-footed wave, Square-spot rustic, Yponomeuta
For me, one of the highlights of our bioblitz of the Cwm Saerbren Woodland last week was the night-time moth-trapping session. I say trapping though, in fact, there was no trap – a big white sheet was draped over a conveniently situated tall wire-mesh fence outside the hall we were using and two bright lights set blazing nearby. It rained steadily most of the evening, so the porch hall provided a convenient sheltering spot and, luckily, the moths weren’t put off.
It’s taken me a few days to identify, and get help with identifying, what we saw. Luckily one of my colleagues at SEWBReC, David Slade, is a moth expert, co-author of The Moths of Glamorgan, and Country recorder for moths – you couldn’t get much better help than that! Thanks, Dave.
Here then are some of our nocturnal visitors: Common carpet (Epirrhoe alternata) (2 photos at top), Common rustic (Mesapamea secalis agg.) (agg. because this species has now been separated into three sub-species which can only be identified through examination of the genitalia), Lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing (Noctua janthe), Small fan-footed wave (Idaea biselata), Square-spot rustic (Xestia xanthographa) (2 photos) and Yponomeuta cagnagella or malinellus or padella (these can’t be separated to exact species once they’ve reached adulthood). (Apologies for the poor photos – not easy conditions for photography.)
03 Saturday Sep 2016
Posted in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, nature, trees
Tags
Dr Mary Gillham, Durmast oak, Lowland oak, Mary Gillham Archive Project, Pedunculate Oak, Quercus pedunculata, Quercus petraea, Quercus robur, Quercus sessiliflora, Sessile oak, Upland oak, volunteering
A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham. This is an extract from a piece called ‘The British Oak’, written for the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society newsletter, September 1991.
Oak is Britain’s national tree. Hearts of oak were our ships and an oak tree appears on the head of the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society notepaper. Yet how many of us can tell the two native British oaks apart – or even realise that there are two? …
We have the Lowland Oak, [in Wales] predominantly in the Vale of Glamorgan, and the Upland Oak, predominantly on the Coalfield hills. If you live along the South Border Ridges backing Cardiff – Pentyrch or thereabouts – you will have both, and also a wide range of hybrids between, so you may be excused a certain degree of confusion.
Mary Gillham’s 1962 watercolour of a hybrid oak
The Lowland or Pedunculate Oak has stalked acorns and unstalked leaves [as in my photo, left below]. (A peduncle is a flower of fruit talk and the name applies to these.) The ‘proper’ name was formerly a neatly descriptive Quercus pedunculata until some egg-headed boffin decided to change it to Quercus robur, which seems to mean very little.
The Upland, Durmast or Sessile Oak has stalkless acorns, sessile, or sitting directly on the woody twig, and stalks to the leaves, which taper to the base instead of terminating in two ear flaps [as in Mary’s photo, below right]. The ‘proper’ name of this was Quercus sessiliflora until (probably the same) taxonomist changed it to a meaningless Quercus petraea.
These scientists do so like to make things difficult for us. Well, yes, so does Mother Nature. I, too, live on the Border Ridges, so my oaks have stalks to both acorns and leaves. That’s the sort of thing which happens with all this indiscriminate sexual intercourse!
For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our website, https://marygillhamarchiveproject.wordpress.com/ and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.
02 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
Corncockle, Cornflower, Field bindweed, Gypsywort, Radyr Weir, Sopawort, Taff Trail, Tansy, White campion, wildflower meadow
Last Monday was a holiday here in Britain so I took myself off for a long walk along Cardiff’s River Taff, starting at the new hydro-electric scheme at Radyr Weir. While the Archimedes Screw turbines that power the scheme were impressive to see in action, it was the adjacent wildflower meadow that I loved best. It appears newly planted so was perhaps part of the reinstatement plan following the hydro scheme’s construction.
Though late in the season, the flowers were in full bloom, providing a welcome feast for bees, wasps, flies and hoverflies. I imagine the flowers were an off-the-shelf wildflower seed mix but they were still lovely, especially my favourites, the eye-popping red of the poppies and blue of the cornflowers.
Strolling along the adjacent, much older pathways I also found other beautiful wildflowers so today’s Floral Friday photos include the Corncockle (Agrostemma githago), Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus), Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and White campion (Silene latifolia sub alba).
01 Thursday Sep 2016
Tags
Chrysotoxum bicinctum, Eupeodes corollae, Eupeodes luniger, hoverfly, Migrant hoverfly, Xanthogramma pedissequum
No, this is not a post about English grammar! I thought I would share more photos of hoverflies before they disappear for the year and it just so happens that today’s selection is not at all scientific – same genus, same habitats – they just all happen to be decorated with commas or dashes.
First up is Chrysotoxum bicinctum, with the two yellow stripes across its abdomen making it quite a distinctive hoverfly and also more easily identifiable than many. Its antennae are a little longer than most hoverflies so this little critter is really trying very hard to imitate a wasp … but without the sting. Usually found in grassy habitats with nearby trees and shrubs for shelter, Chrysotoxum bicinctum can be seen from May to September in most parts of Britain.
Also known as the Migrant hoverfly because, despite its small size, it is migrates across Europe and North Africa, Eupeodes corollae is rather a pretty little hoverfly. It can be a little tricky to ID as the males and females have different yellow markings and, to further confuse things, it is also very similar to Eupeodes luniger, up next. Interestingly, E. corollae has been used as way to control insects and aphids on fruit plantations and in greenhouses … but it turns out they ate more fruit than aphids!
The difference between E. corollae and Eupeodes luniger is in those commas that adorn their abdomens. In E. corollae the markings extend to the edge of the abdomen, whereas in E. luniger they do not. That sounds an easy way to identify them but these hoverflies are not huge critters and it’s not always easy to see those edges. Eupeodes luniger is another migrating species that is known to fly long distances. In Britain they are mostly found in the southern counties.
Last but certainly not least is Xanthogramma pedissequum, another striking wasp mimic, with characteristic vertical stripes on its thorax and horizontal dashes on its abdomen. Though peaking in June and July, it can be seen in southern Britain from May through to September, in grassy places and along tracks and trails where there is some bare dirt. Presumably, this is because their larvae feed on the aphids found in ants’ nests so they are looking along those pathways for suitable egg-laying places.
earthstar 
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