30 Friday Sep 2022
It’s some months since I last visited Cardiff’s Heath Park but, as I was in the area on Wednesday for my latest Covid booster jab, I took the opportunity for a meander. When I lived locally, I found the park’s woodland to be a good location to hunt for fungi, though I did think it had probably been too dry for much to appear. And so, I count myself particularly lucky to have spotted these tiny mushrooms on dead bramble branches. I’m fairly sure these are Twig parachutes (Marasmiellus ramealis).
29 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in insects
Tags
British bees, Colletes hederae, Ivy bee, Ivy bee colonisation, mapping of Ivy bee, spread of Ivy bee
From its first sighting in Dorset the Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) has spread to cover much of England south of a rough line from Nottingham to Norfolk, with scattered sightings in the north of England and just one verified record in Scotland thus far. There have also been verified sightings around most of coastal Wales, though the rugged Welsh hinterlands remain unconquered by this handsome little bee, as do large parts of inland Devon. Considering the first confirmed record of Colletes hederae in Britain came just 21 years ago, it’s an impressive colonisation effort. You can see the latest map on the NBN Atlas website here, and you can contribute to the BWARS mapping project here.
28 Wednesday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
I spotted these two Starlings, perched on a phone line, during a recent walk and, delighting in their beautiful speckled colouring and grateful that they stayed still, took a few photos. It was only when I reviewed the photos later at home that I noticed the juvenile bird, whose head feathers were still a dull brown, had a deformed beak. Fortunately for the bird, the deformity appeared slight so shouldn’t affect its ability to feed.
27 Tuesday Sep 2022
Posted in insects
I don’t know what it’s like where you are but there seem to be gazillions of Small white butterflies around here at the moment, which is why, when I noticed a single Green-veined white butterfly, it stood out like a sore thumb. And then it occurred to me that I hadn’t really covered the various whites much on the blog this butterfly season. So, before all the butterflies fade away for the year, I am going to remedy that, and I will start by showcasing the Green-veined whites (Pieris napi), which are so much easier to identify precisely because of their ‘green veins’, which, the UK Butterflies website reminds me, are not actually green at all but rather ‘an illusion created by a subtle combination of yellow and black scales’. And here they are …
26 Monday Sep 2022
Three weeks ago, we enjoyed Linnets bathing. Today, we have one of a small flock stripping seeds from wildflowers, munching happily with its efficiently designed, seed-cracking beak.
25 Sunday Sep 2022
Posted in autumn, flowers, walks, wildflowers
A railway line used to run along the south Wales coast from my town to the next large town but it fell victim, like so many other railway lines, to the Beeching cuts of the 1960s (the last passenger train ran on 4 May 1968). Part of that old line is now a well-used walking and cycle path, the rest runs through land that is both in private hands and owned by the Welsh government. When Covid first told hold and our county council stupidly closed the local country park (where people could exercise with space in safety), many locals began using the government land or either side of the old rail line. Though there are government plans afoot to turn this land into a cheap, nasty and overcrowded housing estate, in the interim local people continue to use the area for walking, both themselves and their dogs, which means it’s now also possible to access the old rail trail. Today’s little video shows the trail and the wildflowers that were still in bloom along it during a walk I took earlier this week.
24 Saturday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Tags
bird conservation, birding, British birds, Into the Red, red-listed birds, supporting Britain's red-listed birds
I’m finally able to share some exciting news with you all. Back in June I was utterly astonished and hugely delighted to be invited by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to contribute to their forthcoming publication Into the Red, ‘a collection of words and art inspired by Britain’s most vulnerable birds’. The book focuses on Britain’s red-listed birds, each one the subject of an original artwork and a piece of writing, prose or poetry, by 70 artists and 70 writers, some well-known, some not (like me). Profits from the sale of the book will be used to help these birds, to support the work being done to conserve and restore ailing bird populations.
The official publication date is 4 October but you can see examples of the book’s interior pages right now, and pre-order your copies, by clicking on this link to the BTO website. I know times are tough for many people at the moment but, if you can, I urge you to buy the book so that, together, we can try to bring these vulnerable birds back from the edge of extinction. My sincere thanks!
23 Friday Sep 2022
Posted in autumn, flowers, wildflowers
Happy equinox! Today is the first day of astronomical autumn in the northern hemisphere, and what better way to celebrate than with some autumnal blooms, in this case some Wild cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) flowers I spotted growing in a nearby green space earlier this week.
22 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
As well as the Ringed plovers I blogged about yesterday, my walk along Sully beach produced over 30 Turnstones, my favourite beach birds, pottering along, poking under stones, pulling at piles of seaweed in their never-ending search for tasty invertebrates.
21 Wednesday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Tags
beach birding, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Charadrius hiaticula, Ringed plover, Sully birds
Ringed plovers are not common on my local patch. In fact, the only place I see them is amongst the rocks on Sully beach, and that’s exactly where these 15 were perched, snoozing, preening, balancing on one spindly looking leg, when I walked along the beach last week.
Though their scientific name, Charadrius hiaticula, is a bit of a tongue-twister, they have, according to my Fauna Britannica, some wonderful vernacular names: bull’s-eye (Ireland); dulwilly and grundling (Lancashire); ringlestone (Yorkshire); sand tripper (County Down); shell-turner (Sussex); and wideawake (Somerset), to list just a few.
earthstar 
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