Barrage lichens

04 Thursday Feb 2021

Tags

British lichens, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Bay Barrage, lichens on concrete

Cardiff Bay Barrage is a monument to concrete, 135,000 square metres of concrete – in fact, it received an award from The Concrete Society soon after it was completed. And lichens love having so much concrete to colonise!

210204 Barrage lichens (1)

According to that same Concrete Society, ‘As the concrete ages, the surface alkalinity is reduced by carbonation and the action of rainfall, thus providing a more suitable environment for biological growth.’ And, as lichens are sensitive to air pollution, the almost constant blasting of fresh air aids their lush growth, as you can see from these photos, taken during one of last week’s exercise walks.

Cooing doves

03 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Collared dove

Collared doves can be quite flighty I’ve found so, when I was out for a local walk recently, I was delighted to spot this pair grazing amongst the leaf litter on the pavement.

210203 collared dove (1)

As soon as I stopped to get my camera out of my backpack, they saw me and flew off. But I was lucky, as they had only flown across the road and were sitting on a stone wall.

210203 collared dove (2)

Using a van that was parked on that side of the road as cover, I managed to get close enough to get a few photos, then moved around the van and edged closer, very very slowly, to get more images.

210203 collared dove (3)

Happy with those shots, I then put the camera down and just enjoyed watching these beautiful creatures for some minutes, until other pedestrians walking along the street scared them off. I really value special moments like these, and I was cooing quietly to myself all the way home.

210203 collared dove (4)

Leaf mines: Phytomyza chaerophylli

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cow parsley, leaf mines, leaf mining fly, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafminer, Phytomyza chaerophylli

It may be winter but there are still leaf mines to check for, if you live in a location where the Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is already springing up – here in coastal south Wales, I’ve even spotted a few flowers, though the official flowering period is April to June.

The leaf miner is a fly, Phytomyza chaerophylli, whose larvae munch their way through the leaves of several umbellifer species and can usually be seen from early spring right through to the end of summer, sometimes even earlier and later if the temperatures are mild enough. You can read more about these leaf mines and see more images on the UK Fly Mines website.

Feather: Jay

01 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bird feathers, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Eurasian jay, feather, Jay, Jay feather

I could easily have overlooked this feather if, at the very moment I glanced down, the sun hadn’t shone through a fleeting break in the dense cloud cover and highlighted the tiny splodge of bright blue on one side below the white.

210201 jay feather (1)

Once I’d picked up the feather and looked closer, I also noticed the faint blue mottling at the other end of the white patch. That blue is an indisputable identification pointer – this is from a Jay, it’s one of the less vibrant and well marked of its wing feathers.

Wild in the churchyard

31 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers, winter

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, Crocuses, Daisy, Primroses, Red valerian, Snowdrops, St Augustine's Church, Winter heliotrope, winter wildflowers

I often take a wander through the churchyard of St Augustine’s during my local exercise walks. As this space is purposefully managed to attract wildlife and nurture the environment, it’s always a pleasure to visit, to sit on a bench and listen to the birdsong, to check for what’s growing and blooming. On Thursday’s visit, I looked for wildflowers and was delighted to find my first Snowdrops and Crocuses of the year, as well as a lot of Winter heliotrope, several Primroses, a few Daisies in the grass, and the white-flowered variety of Red valerian.

210131 StAugs wildflowers (1) 210131 StAugs wildflowers (2) 210131 StAugs wildflowers (3) 210131 StAugs wildflowers (4) 210131 StAugs wildflowers (5) 210131 StAugs wildflowers (6)

Ring-necked duck, again

30 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aythya collaris, birding, birdwatching, female Ring-necked duck, Ring-necked duck

This gorgeous wee duck has already starred in a couple of this winter’s blog posts but yesterday, when I passed her regular spot, she was closer to the path than usual so I managed to get some slightly better photos, which I can’t resist sharing.

210130 ring-necked duck (1)

The Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris), like the Tufted ducks this one spends its time with locally, is a diving duck that summers and breeds in North America but migrates to spend the winter in the southern United States and Central America. Sometimes that migration goes awry and, according to the BTO, around 21 Ring-necked ducks find their way to Britain each year.

210130 ring-necked duck (2)

Hopefully, in another month or so, our winter visitor, this lovely immature female Ring-necked duck, will catch a favourable wind to carry her back across the Atlantic to rejoin others of her kind and find herself a mate. Fingers crossed!

210130 ring-necked duck (3)

Dead man’s fingers

29 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British fungi, Dead man's fingers, fungi, wood-rotting fungi, Xylaria polymorpha

210129 dead man's fingers
Be afraid! A dead man is poking his rotting blackened fingers up from the leaf litter, reaching for the passing ankles of unwary walkers.

Nah, not really, though the ‘fingers’ – really the fungal fruiting bodies of the aptly named Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha) – can look rather spooky when first encountered.

As the First Nature website explains, these wood-rotting fungi play an important environmental role:

they specialise in consuming neither the softish cellulose nor the much tougher lignin but rather the polysaccharides … As a result, when these and various other ascomycetous fungi have consumed what they can of a dead stump the remainder is a nutrient-rich soft mess that insects and other small creatures are able to feed upon.

RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2021

28 Thursday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birding, birdwatching, Blue tit, British birds, RSPB Garden Birdwatch

In 2020, the Blue tit was the third most common bird to be recorded by people taking part in the annual RSPB Garden Birdwatch, which is happening again this weekend, 29 – 31 January.

210128 blue tit (1)

So, if you have a garden, how about spending a relaxing hour enjoying the birds that visit your green space? You can read all about it and do your bit for citizen science by checking the RSPB website here.

210128 blue tit (2)

A gruesome sight

27 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in amphibian

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British amphibians, Bufo bufo, frozen toad, toad

Today’s post is a bit gruesome but, I think, interesting enough to share. This was the sight that greeted me when I stepped out of my front gate Monday morning – a frozen Toad. Not only was the creature itself frozen stiff but, when I tried to move it, I found the Toad was also frozen to the pavement. After Sunday’s dusting of snow and the continuing chilly temperatures, the freezing wasn’t so much of a surprise as seeing the Toad itself. I presume it must have been living somewhere under the flagstones and gravel of my front yard. Such a shame to see it dead rather than alive.

210127 toad

Common wall mosses

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in bryophytes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British mosses, bryophytes, Grey-cushioned grimmia, Grimmia pulvinata, mosses, mosses on stone walls, Tortula muralis, Wall screw-moss

The bryophytes are a whole division of the plant kingdom that I’ve tended to avoid, apart from taking the odd photo of ‘moss looking gorgeous with raindrops’.

210126 common wall mosses (1)

It’s time to change that, and I’m starting simple. These are two of the mosses commonly found on our local stone walls. First up, Wall screw-moss (Tortula muralis), which the excellent Nature Spot website tells me is ‘the commonest moss on many mortared or base-rich walls – both of brick and stone … It also grows on concrete, roof tiles and other man-made structures, as well as outcrops of natural, base-rich rock’. The webpage also has some key identification features and some excellent photos.

210126 common wall mosses (2)

Growing next to the Wall screw-moss on a local wall, I also found the lovely hemispherical tufts of Grey-cushioned grimmia (Grimmia pulvinata), the most common of the Grimmias. Once again, Nature Spot has a detailed list of ID features to check. Mosses can be tricky to identify so my self-education in this field will progress very slowly, I’m sure, but I have had these two verified so it’s a positive start.

210126 common wall mosses (3)