30 Monday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
They laugh at me from the long grass.
They laugh at me from the branches.
Not only the adults but even the juveniles laugh at me. They’re the Green woodpeckers, also known as Yaffles precisely because of their laugh-like call. There’s nothing quite like a bird laughing at me to keep me humble when I’m being over-confident at my ability to find and identify flora and fauna, and I love them for it.
29 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in insects
Hoverflies have barely flown in to my blog posts this year. There was a new-to-me species in August (Hoverfly: Melangyna umbellatarum, 3 August), and a hoverfly larva starred in a short video in October (Lucky, unlucky, 16 October) but that’s about the extent of their involvement. I have seen hoverflies, of course, though I often struggle to identify them. Luckily, the Xanthogramma pedissequum shown below is one of the easier species to name, and it fits perfectly in this countdown.
28 Saturday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
My choice here was a foregone conclusion. I had never seen Waxwings before a small flock appeared in a north Cardiff park in mid January (Lifer: Waxwings, 13 January), and then a small gang of four arrived in Cosmeston Lakes, my local country park, on 2 March (Cosmeston’s Waxwings, 9 March). And, to my absolute delight, four new arrivals doubled our enjoyment and they stayed, and stayed, and stayed – 40 days in all (Waxwings, still, 22 March). It was a truly wonderful wildlife experience, not just seeing these birds but having them present for long enough to observe them more closely and really get to know their habits. Who knows how many years it will be till we are lucky enough to experience another Waxwing winter.
27 Friday Dec 2024
Posted in wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Common vetch, Crown vetch, Grass vetchling, Hairy tare, Meadow vetchling, Tufted vetch, Vetches, vetchlings
Wildflowers haven’t yet featured in this countdown so today’s post seeks to remedy that omission (you might think the letter W would be the obvious choice but that letter is already allocated to one of this year’s star species – can you guess which?). So, as these gorgeous members of the pea family are some of my favourite wildflowers, this year V is for vetch – and vetchling, and also Hairy tare as it’s one of the Vicia species.
Common vetch (Vicia sativa)
Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), left, and Crown vetch (Securigera varia), right
Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca)
Meadow vetching (Lathyrus pratensis), left, and Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), right
And, finally, my absolute favourite Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)
26 Thursday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
U is another tricky letter in this alphabetical countdown. Initially, I was considering Ulex, as in Gorse, with a description of all the various creatures that live on that plant. Or maybe ‘unidentified’, as I have plenty of insects I haven’t yet found a name for. And then I thought of UFO, as in Unidentified Flying Objects, but found I’d deleted most of my images in a moment of frustration. But then yesterday, Christmas Day, Nature gave me the best possible present and I decided to use UFO but, in this case, it stands for Unforgettable Flying Object. Because as I walked across the Barrage, there was a feeding frenzy of hundreds of Black-headed gulls outside the sluices (seemingly catching tiny sprats washing out from Cardiff Bay) and, amongst them, I spotted this gorgeous Little gull. 2024 will be a Christmas I won’t forget in a hurry! I hope yours was also memorable for the best possible reasons.
25 Wednesday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
Other than the sweet little Blue tits (Spreading the word, 27 February, and Reappearing, 7 August), the other local species of tits haven’t appeared on this blog very often this year. Perhaps I am guilty of ignoring the commonplace, in which case shame on me, as they are amongst the birds I see and enjoy watching most often. Though I haven’t blogged about them, I have drawn four of our local tit species so, as this 2024 self-imposed bird-drawing challenge comes to a close, I’d like to share these …
Marsh tit
Coal tit
Great tit
Blue tit
24 Tuesday Dec 2024
Posted in birds
S is for Siskin, those gorgeous little feathery bundles of yellow and black that perform acrobatics in the Alder trees in the cooler months as they poke around in the nuts, prying the tasty seeds loose with their sharp beaks (as featured in Siskins in the Alders, 30 January, and Alder seeds are delicious, 10 February).
23 Monday Dec 2024
Posted in insects
Finding my first-ever Red-eyed damselflies, and at a previously unrecorded local site alongside the River Ely, was another of my most treasured wildlife moments of 2024 (Lifer: Red-eyed damselfly, 24 May). Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to see them at that location again for at least the next three or four years as the walkway access has recently been closed to pedestrians while adjacent apartment blocks are being re-clad. The good news is that there is another site, along one of Cardiff’s inner city canals (More Red-eyed damsels, 26 June), where I should be able to find them again next summer.
22 Sunday Dec 2024
Posted in insects
Q is a difficult letter in my annual countdown. Quercus, the Latin name for the mighty Oak tree, has featured in my two previous countdowns but this year I thought I’d pay homage to those majestic creatures, the queen bumblebees. They’ve featured several times in this year’s blogs (for example, A bumblebee and its mimic, 11 March, and Early bumblebee, 26 March) but, right now, they’ll mostly be hibernating. Though they do emerge during the winter months when the weather’s unseasonably warm and sunny, it’s not until ground temperatures begin to rise and the warmth of springtime becomes more constant that they will be encouraged to awaken, find a cosy burrow, and lay the eggs that will produce the next generation of beautiful bumblebees.
21 Saturday Dec 2024
Posted in insects
Finding these tiny Puss moth caterpillars was one of the highlights of my wildlife year (Puss moth kittens, 4 June). I’d seen photos of them, and oozed with envy when others posted their finds on social media, so to spot them sitting happily on a scruffy local willow tree was a magical moment. Sadly, I wasn’t able to follow them as they grew: I re-found them the second time I looked, then found one on my third visit, but nothing during any subsequent searches. So, either they wandered higher in the tree or fell victim to hungry birds. I hope the former is true.
earthstar 
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