08 Thursday Jan 2026
Am I watching the Sparrowhawk or is the Sparrowhawk watching me?
I was checking the rather boggy area near these trees and shrubs for any lurking Snipe (none seen) when I was distracted by a rustling in the branches. A bird flew out and away up the field, and I quickly realised it was a Sparrowhawk from its flight pattern (flap, flap, glide). Then, I got the feeling I was being watched and turned to find this second Sparrowhawk still sitting in the trees.
07 Wednesday Jan 2026
Deep-diving in leaf litter has become a favourite pastime when the days are short, the birds aren’t showing themselves, and the insects are few … except in the wet muddy depths of the decaying leaves where so many spend their winters as larvae, and where adult springtails abound. This springtail, Orchesella cincta, which had crawled from the leaf litter on to a metal fence, was a new find for me in December.
06 Tuesday Jan 2026
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Hawthorn berries, Redwing, Redwings eating berries, Turdus iliacus, winter thrushes
The local berry trees and shrubs – Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Buckthorn and, in parks and gardens, also Cotoneaster and Firethorn – have an abundance of fruit this winter, which means we have a corresponding abundance of thrushes feasting on those berries.
I find our winter visitors, the beautiful Redwings (Turdus iliacus), quite skittish birds, often difficult to get close to. And even when I do manage to sneak up on them, their bodies are frequently obscured, at least in part, by the branches and twigs of the trees in which they’re perched.
So, I was particularly pleased to spot this bird, which was so intent on the delicious Hawthorn berries it was devouring that it didn’t initially notice my approach so I was able to get several reasonably sharp images before a nearby Blackbird suddenly raised the alarm and the whole tree erupted with panicking birds.
p.s. As I’ve been writing this, I’ve just noticed 2 Redwings in the trees opposite my flat, a new bird for the house list.
05 Monday Jan 2026
Posted in insects
Tags
Anthocoris nemorum, Anthocoris nemorum adult, Anthocoris nemorum nymph, British bugs, Common flower bug
The two ladybird species (Arboreal ladybird and Kidney-spot ladybird) I’ve already blogged about weren’t the only new insects I happened to find at the end of last year. Common flower bug may be its common name but, apart from a tiny red nymph I spotted last summer (pictured here with an aphid, which will give you an idea of how tiny it really was), I’d never seen an adult Anthocoris nemorum until mid December.
The British Bugs website cautions that this is a difficult genus of bugs to identify so, if possible, you need to get clear images of the various key features: reflective forewings, entirely black pronotum, mostly orange-brown legs, etc. Fortunately for me, my little bug didn’t scurry away too quickly, and my photographs were enough to get a positive identification from the national recorder. The adult Anthocoris nemorum bugs can be seen all year round so I’ve been on the look out for more but, given our current chilly weather, I think they’re probably hiding away in the undergrowth, trying not to freeze.
04 Sunday Jan 2026
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Black redstart, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Goldeneye, Redshank, treecreeper
As one of the people I follow on social media so aptly wrote: ‘Birdy folk do love a list. Especially a list that can be wiped clean and started afresh’. And, though I’m not by any means one of those obsessive listers who drive all over the country just to add a bird to their list, I do enjoy the challenge of walking around my local patch seeing what I can find for my new year’s list of bird species.
In recent years, when the weather has allowed, I’ve started the year with a circuit of Cardiff Bay, and that’s exactly how I began 2026. A bitterly cold wind was blowing out of the north west, which probably accounts for some missed birds – I think the resident Raven pair were probably huddled near their perch and the Linnets had found somewhere more sheltered to forage, but my total by the end of an eight-and-a-half-mile walk was a very respectable 43 species.
The highlights for me were, firstly, a Treecreeper (my first photo above) that I spotted on a street tree just a block from home – they can be quite difficult to find locally, but that was the second one I’d seen on local street trees in the past week.
Redshanks are one of my favourite bird species and, though I’ve seen several foraging for food on the mudflats outside Cardiff Bay Barrage this winter, the three birds that were stationed along the Ely River embankment on New Year’s Eve and again on New Year’s morning were the first I’d seen within the Bay itself. They tend only to come in during very cold weather.
Black redstarts have been absent from the Bay so far this winter, so local birders were very pleased when this female was located on 30 December, and very relieved that she decided to stay in to the new year. The same could be said of the Goldeneye pair that have been in the Bay on and off for a couple of weeks; fortunately for those of us birders who do love a list, they appeared together on New Year’s day. And so it began …
03 Saturday Jan 2026
Posted in insects
As my flat faces south, I’m sheltered from the often strong, always bitterly cold nor’easterlies that blew relentlessly every day for the final week of 2025, and so my window ledge was the perfect spot for a basking Red admiral to soak up the sun’s warmth, although I couldn’t get a clear shot without disturbing it. I think 27 December is by far the latest date in the year I’ve ever seen a butterfly, though those species that overwinter as adults frequently do emerge from their version of hibernation (called diapause) when the temperatures are warm enough.
02 Friday Jan 2026
Who knew I would finish off 2025, an already great year for new bugs, with even more new finds, especially in December? Yesterday I brought you my first sighting of an Arboreal ladybird and, today, here’s my first sighting of a Kidney-spot ladybird (Chilocorus renipustulatus), once again the result of checking the local park railings as I walked past.
I first saw this lovely little ladybird on 14 December, then had a second sighting, remarkably of the same ladybird (I can tell from the shape of its spots) in approximately the same location two days later. At just 5mm in length, the Kidney-spot is one of the smaller ladybirds, and has a black face and body, with a vivid red spot on each of its wing cases. It is usually associated with well-wooded locations, as it feeds on the scale insects that live on the bark of trees.
01 Thursday Jan 2026
Happy New Year, everyone!
Since I bought the book Micro ladybirds of Britain and Ireland: A guide to the smaller species of Coccinellidae (Maria Justamond and David W. Williams, Field Studies Council, 2025) earlier this year, I’ve been hoping to find one of the species listed within its enticing pages. And, on 7 December, I finally did.
I can’t take any credit for actively searching for and finding this little ladybird; my only credit is for realising how great a location my local park railings are after wet and windy weather, which is when I find a diverse range of tiny insects sitting on and tootling along on top of them.
This adorable little creature is my first Arboreal ladybird (Rhyzobius chrysomeloides), a tiny insect between 2.5mm and 3.5mm long, reddish brown in colour with distinctive brown markings on the elytra (wing cases), and usually found on a variety of trees (pines, cypresses), shrubs (Pyracantha, Viburnum, Euonymus) and ivy. It can be confused with another Rhyzobius species, the Meadow ladybird, but I am fortunate to follow and be followed by both the authors of the Micro ladybirds book, so was able to get almost immediate confirmation of my find.
31 Wednesday Dec 2025
Posted in spiders
My 2025 countdown finishes with one of the cutest little life forms that I’ve encountered many times this year, the Zebra spider (blogged on 8 March).
Happy 2026 to all my wonderful followers and fellow Nature lovers!
I hope the coming year brings you many fabulous encounters with the flora and fauna that surround you, and the peace and calmness that spending time in Nature can bring us all.
30 Tuesday Dec 2025
Posted in insects
Tags
Clouded yellow, Colias croceus, female Red-veined darter, immature Red-veined darter, Misumena vatia, Scathophaga stercoraria, Sympetrum fonscolombii, yellow crab spider, Yellow dung fly, yellow insects, yellow-colour wildlife
Yellow is such a cheery hue, the colour of so many beautiful wildflowers but also of many of the small creatures that share our world with us, like …
The migrant Clouded yellow butterfly (Colias croceus), which I was lucky enough to see several times in 2025.
The Yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) is one of those flies that seems always to be around, often just sitting on a leaf observing its surroundings and the antics of passing humans.
The crab spider Misumena vatia that can change colour to match the flower upon which it sits … or not.
Named for the colour of the male’s attributes but the female/immature Red-veined darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) is a glorious golden colour.
I would very much have liked to have been able to include Yellow-browed warbler in this selection of yellow-coloured fauna but I managed not to find the one local visitor, despite three times standing staring at the trees where it was meant to be. Oh well, there’s always next year.
earthstar 
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