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earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Monthly Archives: January 2019

5/365 A fossick at the seaside

05 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, seaside

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, beachcoming, fossicking at the seaside, fossilised seashell

I may not have a sea view but one of the joys of living by the seaside is that I can walk to the beach in less than 10 minutes. So, although today was mostly spent on various chores, I still had time for one of my favourite things, a fossick along the stony shore. I picked up a few nice bits of sea glass, a couple of perhaps old bits of pottery – I like to pretend I’m on Time Team and have found something ancient or Roman, and what may be a fossilised seashell.

p.s. My friend Mark, who knows a thing or two about fossils, says that the ‘thing’ in my photo ‘looks to be a Gryphaea aka Devil’s Toe Nail, but in this case, instead of the calcium carbonate that usually replaces the shell, it has been replaced by a mineral called beekite, which is a form of silica. It’s the beekite that has created those pale circular patches that cover the surface.’

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4/365 Reeds and their buntings

04 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, plants, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birds in reed beds, birdwatching, British birds, common reed, Phragmites australis, Reed bunting

Today I was entertained for about two hours watching these little cuties, Reed buntings, swaying back and forth on bendy reeds, stuffing their beaks full of seeds and spitting out the fluff. When the sun finally peeked through the cloud layer, both the handsomely streaked buntings (this is a female) and the tall feather-plumed reeds shone golden, a feast for the eyes and welcome compensation for the hoped-for Bearded tits that failed to show today.

190104 reed bunting

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3/365 First slime of the year

03 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, Comatricha nigra, slime, slime mould, slime on umbellifer stem

I simply can’t resist a nice slime. So, during today’s walk along the Penarth to Lavernock coastal path, when I passed a place where I’ve found this particular slime before – it’s called Comatricha nigra, I checked the bottom of two or three old umbellifer stems before finding this superb specimen.

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2/365 Feeling guilty

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, British robin, robin, Robin Redbreast

Winter seems finally to have arrived and it was frosty when I arrived at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park early this morning, hoping for a nice long walk before the school holiday crowds arrived. Unfortunately, in my haste to leave home, I forgot to fill my seed container so had nothing to offer the hungry birds. This fluffed-up little Robin was not at all impressed.

190102 robin

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1/365 Urban foxes

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, animals, mammal, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British mammals, fox, male and female fox, pair of foxes, urban fox

To kickstart my birding list for the new year, I walked 8+ miles around Cardiff Bay, logging all the different bird species I could find (they’ll appear on my Birding 2019 page as soon as I finish editing my photos). With mostly blue skies and an abundance of lovely birds, it was a super walk but the highlight wasn’t the birds – it was spotting and then watching these two beautiful foxes lolling about in the grass, enjoying the winter sunshine. Such magnificent creatures!

190101 urban foxes

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2019 : the plan

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by sconzani in nature

≈ 8 Comments

Happy New Year to you all!

Like many people, for this new year I am setting myself some new challenges. As well as aiming to walk 1000 miles in 2019 and do more volunteering, I’m also taking up the challenge of re-wilding myself, doing something ‘wild’ every single day. By ‘wild’ I mean exploring the outdoors, birding (I’m aiming for another 200 species this year and will post my list on a separate page), learning more about wildflowers and mini-beasties, going for a walk by the seaside, getting up for the sunrise, anything really that means I’ve got my eyes, ears and mind open and that I’m truly experiencing the natural world around me. And I’m going to share my wild adventures on here.

So, rather than publishing a blog post every day as I have for the last 3 years, most days I’ll just post a ‘wild’ photo, with a sentence or two explaining what I’ve been up to or the significance of that particular photo. I will still write some longer blogs but they will probably only be weekly from now on. I hope you enjoy the new format!

190101 Cardiff Bay

a new year dawns over Cardiff Bay

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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