181/365 An aberrant Meadow brown

30 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

Tags

#365DaysWild, aberrant butterfly, aberrant Meadow brown, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Meadow Brown, pathological aberration

I feel like I should be apologising for featuring butterflies three days in a row but this little butterfly is so interesting that I just had to share it. There are a ton of Meadow browns flitting around the wildflower fields at Cosmeston right now and they mostly look like this – or, at least, the females do.

190630 Meadow brown normal female

So, I think you can see why the butterfly in this next photo caught my eye. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a really clear shot of it, as it kept flying further into the flowers and I didn’t want to trample them, but you get the idea. Thanks to a tweet from UK Butterflies, I now know “This aberration is referred to as ‘pathological’, where wing scales fail to pigment – thought to be caused by some type of damage (physical or chemical) to the pupa. Asymmetrical examples are known too where only 1 wing is affected.” Isn’t it fascinating?

190630 Meadow brown aberrant female

180/365 Butterflying in Somerset, part II

29 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, butterflying, Collard Hill, Large blue, Large blue butterfly, Marbled white, Wild thyme

Scenario: Three friends go seeking rare butterflies across the border in England.

190629 Collard Hill view

Second location: Collard Hill, in Somerset. A hot walk up the steep hill for more incredible views across picturesque Somerset. And we weren’t far from the legendary Glastonbury Tor.

190629 Glastonbury Tor

Support act: Marbled white. My first sightings of these little beauties for the year, and we saw several flitting back and forth above the long grass.

190629 marbled white

Star attraction: Large blue. Incredibly, this butterfly was declared extinct in Britain in the 1970s but was reintroduced from Sweden to Green Down, a Somerset Wildlife Trust site, in 1992. Since then the butterflies have mostly thrived (though they are affected by weather, habitat and ant conditions – for more on that, check out the National Trust Large blue blog) and they’ve been reintroduced to several other areas, including this site at Collard Hill.

190629 large blue (2)

During our visit, it was very windy at the top and very hot in the lee of the hill, not ideal conditions for seeing the butterflies but, after following the animal tracks back and forth across the hillside, we finally had good sightings of three Large blues on their favourite food plant, Wild thyme. One female was even ovipositing, which bodes well for the coming years.

190629 large blue (3)

It was amazing to see both these Large blues and, earlier in the day, the Heath fritillaries, both lifers for me, and I want to say a huge thank you to Gareth and Alan for letting me join their butterflying expedition. It was a truly magical day!

190629 large blue (4)

179/365 Butterflying in Somerset, part I

28 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, butterflying, Exmoor ponies, Green hairstreak, Haddon Hill, Heath fritillary

Scenario: Three friends go seeking rare butterflies across the border in England.

190628 Haddon Hill views

First location: Haddon Hill, in Somerset, offering superb views across the surrounding countryside and grazed by Exmoor ponies.

190628 exmoor ponies

Support act: A Green hairstreak. This was a superb spot by Alan almost as soon as we crossed the stile into the reserve, as this gorgeous little butterfly was incredibly well camouflaged sitting on the grass.

190628 green hairstreak

Star attraction: Heath fritillary. What a cracking little butterfly this is, with its elaborate orange and dark brown upperwing markings, and its equally lovely and intricate underwings. Sadly, this is a rare butterfly in Britain these days but it is being helped along by the sterling efforts of Butterfly Conservation and others. Luckily, at this site, Heath fritillaries are very numerous – we must’ve seen at least 25, and they were literally fluttering in the bushes and brambles all around us. One even landed briefly on my hand – an incredibly special moment.

190628 heath fritillary (1) 190628 heath fritillary (2) 190628 heath fritillary (3) 190628 heath fritillary (4) 190628 heath fritillary (5)

178/365 Oxeyes

27 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, daisies, Dog daisy, Horse daisy, Moon daisy, Moonpenny, Oxeye daisy, white wildflowers, wildflowers

I’ve gone butterflying today – fingers crossed I’ll have some beauties to show you tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope these Oxeye daisies will brighten your day as much as they always do mine.

190627 ox-eye daisy (j)

These are Leucanthemum vulgare, also known as Dog daisies, Horse daisies, Moon daisies, Moonpennies and Marguerites. Once abundant in agricultural grasslands, they’ve been driven out of those areas, mostly because of the industrialisation and chemicalisation of modern farming, so now they’re the early colonisers of brown-field sites and roadside verges, and flourish in unimproved grasslands.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

If you want to know more about these cheery flowers, check out Plantlife’s website, which always has a wealth of fascinating information about Britain’s wildflowers.

177/365 Skimmers

26 Wednesday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, Black-tailed skimmer, British dragonflies, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, dragonflies, dragonfly

I was just saying to someone the other day that I haven’t been seeing many dragonflies this year and what happens? The very next time I go walking at Cosmeston, I see several.

190626 black-tailed skimmers (2)

These two Black-tailed skimmers were the most obliging, as they tend to station themselves along the pathways through the wildflower fields, rising up as you get near them and then re-settling a little further along the path. If you watch where they land and you’re slow and quiet as you approach, you can get quite near them.

190626 black-tailed skimmers (1)

176/365 More new arrivals

25 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks

190625 moorhen family (5)

On April Fool’s day I reported on the hatching of five Moorhen chicks in one of the ponds at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. Nearly two months on, I’m delighted to report that all five of those chicks are still alive and thriving, and they now have a brand new bunch of five siblings, their parents’ second brood of the year. Raising them is a real family affair, as the older siblings help to feed and look after their little brothers and sisters. And there’s still time for the mum and dad to have yet another brood. I’ll be watching.

190625 moorhen family (1)

175/365 The eye of faith

24 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, Bittern, Black-tailed godwit, British birds, Cuckoo, Great white egret, Grey heron, Hobby, Marsh harrier, RSPB Ham Wall, Shapwick Heath, Whitethroat

You’re just going to have to believe me when I tell you that the photo on the left below is of a Cuckoo in a tree, and the photo on the right is of a Hobby in the same tree four minutes later.

Today’s photos were taken during yesterday’s Glamorgan Bird Club field trip to RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath on the Somerset Levels, a very watery place, as you can imagine, and one where, depending on the time of year, you’re almost guaranteed to see Marsh harriers, Bitterns, Great white and Little egrets. So, here they are, plus a couple of extras. It was a grand day out, as usual on these birding field trips.

A Grey heron hunts in one of the lush reens …

190624 heron in a reen

The obligatory blurry bittern fly-past shot.

190624 bittern flypast

The equally obligatory distant Marsh harrier shot … but I did manage to get two in one frame.

190624 marsh harriers

Great white egrets aplenty …

190624 great white egret

Black-tailed godwits and a couple of Lapwings doing a turn of the pond. And “Look at me! Look at me!” called the handsome little Whitethroat, so we did.

174/365 Foxgloves

23 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British wildflowers, Foxgloves, summer flowers, wildflowers

I’m out on a birding trip today and may be home late so here’s a little something I prepared earlier on the gorgeous Foxgloves that I’ve been spotting, growing at the edges of train tracks heading up the Welsh Valleys, and under trees, alongside hedgerows and amongst the bracken at Aberbargoed Grasslands. Foxy places perhaps? Their liking for the places frequented by foxes is the only reason Richard Mabey comes up with in my Flora Britannica for their Foxglove name. It’s a mystery!

190623 foxgloves (1)

173/365 Orange hawkweed

22 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British wildflowers, Cathays Cemetery, Fox and cubs, Grim the collier, orange hawkweed, wildflowers

190622 orange hawkweed (3)

The Orange hawkweed (also known as Fox-and-cubs and Grim the collier) was putting on a magnificent display in Cathays Cemetery today.

190622 orange hawkweed (1)

So, I thought I’d better grab some photos because this is a cemetery that is (mis)managed by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade, those who place value in strimming everything to within an inch of its life rather than in the beauty of the wildflowers and the food they provide to insects.

190622 orange hawkweed (2)

172/365 Flitillaries

21 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, fritillaries, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Summer solstice

My mis-spelling of the word fritillaries is deliberate – the darn things never keep still. They’re either constantly flitting from place to place at a great rate of knots or, when they do settle, they either disappear into the long grass so you can’t find them or they perch on a flower to refuel but never stop flapping their wings for a moment.

190621 small pearl-bordered fritillary (1)

Those are my excuses for the Small pearl-bordered fritillaries in today’s photos being out of focus and/or obscured by blades of grass!

190621 small pearl-bordered fritillary (2)

Still, I spent a glorious few hours with them, and their cousins the Marsh fritillaries, at Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve. A little patience was required, as huge menacing clouds kept rolling over but, in the gaps between, when the sun came out, so did the butterflies.

190621 small pearl-bordered fritillary (3)