Author Archives: sconzani

Gypsywort

09 Sunday Oct 2022

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I was initially puzzled by this wildflower, growing lush and plentiful along the southern and eastern edges of the old Bute East Dock in central Cardiff. The structure reminded me of a dead-nettle but it wasn’t till I got home, checked my photos and did some online research that I discovered this is Gypsywort (or Gipsywort, depending on how you choose to spell that word) (Lycopus europaeus). It’s a wildflower I’ve only seen a couple of times previously and never in such profusion.

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The intriguing name, according to Richard Mabey in Flora Britannica, comes from the fact that the plant can be used to produce a black dye that, people once believed, was used by Gypsies to darken their skin. More likely it was used by Gypsy fortune tellers, as the WildflowerFinder website suggests, to dye their clothes black.

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Rush veneer

07 Friday Oct 2022

Posted by in insects

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The migrants just keep coming, and I love to see them because it always seems so amazing to me that a little moth like this, with a wingspan of just 26-32mm, can fly all the way to south Wales from somewhere in Europe.

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Meet the Rush veneer (Nomophila noctuella), which the UK Moths website says ‘can often be found in large numbers at coastal watch-points, and tends to occur in the adult stage between May and September’. At least six of these little migrants flew up from the path as I walked through a local field earlier this week.

Old man, elegant ballerina

06 Thursday Oct 2022

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I’ve had two close encounters with Grey herons in recent days, this first in a tree near the bridge between the lakes at Cosmeston Country Park (which is why I was at eye level with the bird).

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The second was along the canals in Cardiff, the bird this time standing on a log at water level. When I posted this photo on Twitter one of my followers commented that she thought the heron could ‘change from an old man to an elegant ballerina depending on stance’ – thank you, Jane. I think she was absolutely right – the bird above is the elegant ballerina, and below is the grumpy old man.

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Beach butterflies

05 Wednesday Oct 2022

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I went to Sully beach on Monday specifically to look for the two Grey plovers that have been frequenting the waterline on and off in recent days. (I saw them but too distantly for good photos – I’ll try again when the tide is higher, so may yet post about them.) What I did not expect to see was two – or perhaps, three – Clouded yellows along the beach. I only managed to get photos of two so can’t confirm the third sighting was a different individual – they fly so fast, one could easily have passed me! Doesn’t their amazing yellow pop against the colour of the beach pebbles?

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Very late, very little

04 Tuesday Oct 2022

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I spotted this gorgeous little Coot chick (I call them Cootlets) during last Wednesday’s walk around Cardiff’s Roath Park Lake. It seemed very late in the breeding season for one so young and I couldn’t help but wonder whether it could survive. But it had the full attention of both its parents, so fingers crossed!

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Leafmines: Phyllocnistis saligna

03 Monday Oct 2022

Posted by in insects, leaves, trees

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A new month, a new leafmine challenge, and it’s got off to a very successful start for me. But let’s start at the beginning …
Our locally based Senior ecologist with Butterfly Conservation, George, kickstarted the challenge with a couple of tweets and some photos last Friday evening:

Ok #TeamLeafmine here’s another recent S. Wales colonist to look for; an easy one to identify too. Phyllocnistis saligna mines narrow-leaved willows, unusual because it mines both leaves & young stems. 3 recent records by the Taff in North Cardiff, must be out there elsewhere!

Cocoons are formed in a turned over leaf edge, see 3rd photo in original tweet. Quite a few Gwent records from the Levels and Monmouth/Abergavenny, also new to Carmarthenshire in 2021. Must be in & around Cardiff Bay! More info here: http://leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/P.saligna.htm

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I didn’t have any firm plans for Saturday’s walk so wended my merry way along the edges of the two local rivers, the Ely and the Taff. I soon realised that this challenge will be a little more difficult than previous ones, as narrow-leaved willows were few and far between and, when found, often inaccessible. However, I did manage to find mines in two locations along the River Taff, which has encouraged me to continue my search further up the river very soon. And, though I hope to find more mines, I doubt I’ll find one of the very lovely little adult Phyllocnistis saligna moths, the wonderfully named Willow bent-wings, which you can see on the UK Moths website.

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Acorn cupules

02 Sunday Oct 2022

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‘The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.’ ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Though I knew that the presence (so, Pedunculate) or absence (no peduncle, so Sessile) of a stalk on the acorns of an Oak tree is how to tell those two species apart, I hadn’t really noticed before the differences in the ‘woolly hats’ (cupules) on the acorns of the various Oak species. Below are, firstly, the Pedunculate (or English) oak (Quercus robur), followed by the Holm (or evergreen) oak (Quercus ilex). I couldn’t find a Sessile oak acorn as they don’t grow along the south Wales coast – they prefer the cooler upland woodlands further north.

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Great black-backed gulls

01 Saturday Oct 2022

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It’s not unusual to see Great black-backed gulls on the water in Cardiff Bay or on the mudflats outside the Barrage at low tide, so these two adults weren’t a great surprise (though I’ve not seen one sitting on a pontoon before).

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What was a surprise though was seeing this juvenile. Initially, I wasn’t sure what it was – I figured it wasn’t a Herring or Lesser black-backed gull as it was larger, had different markings on body and wings, and a markedly different head shape. I thought perhaps it was a Yellow-legged gull until, most fortuitously, I bumped into a local gull expert who was able to identify the bird from looking at the photos on my camera. My first juvenile Great black-backed gull, I think.

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Twig parachutes

30 Friday Sep 2022

Posted by in autumn, fungi

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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).

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