01 Friday Nov 2024
Who knew slugs liked disco? Lemon disco, that is. The fungus, not the John Travolta – Saturday Night Fever – Bee Gees – strobing lights type of disco. This particular slug certainly did, as it had paused its slithering to taste the delicate little yellow cups.
31 Thursday Oct 2024
Posted in birds
‘Tis the season for Firecrests, those darling little birds that only flit through my local area for a few of the cooler months of the year – the official description by Glamorgan Bird Club is ‘uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor’.
This is another bird species that I’ve looked for over the past few weeks, in locations where it’s been seen in previous years, unsuccessfully. So, when I heard two Firecrests had been sighted in Cardiff’s Bute Park – another favoured location, I thought I’d take a look – I had chores to do in the city, and the autumn colours in the park are always worth a visit, so I figured that, even if I dipped the birds, it wouldn’t be a wasted journey.
And, as you can see from my photos, it most definitely was not a wasted journey. Firecrests can be quite elusive and secretive, and, as they are tiny, are often obscured by vegetation. These were the best and closest views I’ve ever had, so I was over the moon!
30 Wednesday Oct 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
Acericerus heydenii, British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhopper, leafhopper on Sycamore
Today’s little leafhopper appeared when I was turning over leaves of Sycamore trees at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery. I initially thought it was Acericerus vittifrons but my record was redetermined to Acericerus heydenii by the national leafhopper recorder when he checked it.
Acericerus heydenii (previously known as Idiocerus heydenii) is a relatively recent arrival to Britain – it was first spotted in the south of England in 2010, probably having hitched a ride on a ferry across the Channel, or on a train through the Eurotunnel, from somewhere in Europe. Judging by the records on the Welsh national biodiversity database, it took about nine years to make its way across to Wales, where 15 specimens have now been recorded.
Please excuse the quality of my photos today. The camera I use for all my close-ups, an Olympus TG-5, does not deal well with low light (apparently, a known fault, which I did not know about when I bought it). This fault causes a purple cast in the centre of images, which I’ve tried not very successfully to correct. If you’re interested, you can see excellent images of today’s leafhopper on the True Hoppers of the Western Palearctic website.
29 Tuesday Oct 2024
An amazing bird migration occurred last week, and the whole phenomenom is a bit of a mystery.
The migrating birds were Woodpigeons (Columba palumbus), which may surprise you – who knew Woodpigeons migrated? Even more surprising is the numbers heading south west, estimated to be between 50,000 and 150,000 birds. I saw some of the flocks passing over and they were huge – it is truly an amazing spectacle to witness, and it happens every year, in late October / early November, the timing probably dependant on various weather conditions.
What’s mysterious about this migration is where the birds come from and where they are going. These do not seem to be local British birds, as our population seems either to be mostly stationary or restricts its movements to within the UK, so the current assumption is that these are predominantly Woodpigeons passing through Britain, possibly originating in Scandinavia and likely heading to Spain and Portugal to over-winter.
28 Monday Oct 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
British leafminers, Gypsonoma oppressana, Gypsonoma species, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafminers on Poplar, moth larvae on Poplar
Though this post is entitled Gypsonoma species (and that’s how I recorded my find), according to one of my friendly local experts, the mines shown here are very likely to be Gypsonoma oppressana as that species usually mines communally, with up to three mines on a leaf. The other Gypsonoma species possibility that also uses Poplar as a larval food plant (though mines other tree leaves as well) is G. dealbana but its larvae are usually solitary miners and, if you happen to spot them, are whitish rather than the brown colour of G. oppressana. You may just be able to make out in my photos the frass-covered silken tubes these larvae create to hide in.
I was a little late in the season looking for this species but my expert tells me I won’t have to wait till next autumn to restart my search for more Gypsonoma oppressana larvae. In the spring, when the larvae wake up, they feed inside Poplar leaf buds, but they still live within their pooh-covered tubes and these can be spotted poking out from the holes they make in the leaf buds.
The adult Gypsonoma oppressana is a gorgeous little moth, with subtle patterning in shades of grey, brown, white and cinnamon, which you can see on the UK Moths website.
27 Sunday Oct 2024
On Thursday I caught the train in to Cardiff, to the station nearest Roath Park, specifically to immerse myself in the gorgeous colours of Autumn, and I was not disappointed. Here are some of the glorious scenes that caught my eye around the lake.
26 Saturday Oct 2024
I was wondering how the Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) got its name when I flicked on to the Woodland Trust website and there was the answer: ‘The nuthatch’s habit of hacking at these nuts to retrieve them from their hiding place is thought to have earned the species its name.’ The comment refers to this bird’s practice of stashing nuts in gaps and crevices in the bark of trees as a safeguard against the leaner days of winter, much as squirrels and Jays do.
25 Friday Oct 2024
Tags
autumn fungi, British fungi, Clustered bonnet, Common inkcap, Coprinopsis atramentaria, inkcap fungi, Mycena inclinata, Oak bonnet
For Fungi Friday, here are just a couple of the little flocks of fungi I’ve found during recent walks hither and yon.
These, I think, are Common inkcaps (Coprinopsis atramentaria) that had sprung up beneath the trees near the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. There one day, gone the next, as is usual with these transient fungi.
And, as they were growing from an old fallen Oak tree in Cosmeston’s Cogan Wood, I think these are the appropriately name Clustered bonnet, also known as Oak bonnet, (Mycena inclinata).
24 Thursday Oct 2024
Posted in insects
Tags
British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, Idiocerus decimusquartus, leafhopper, leafhoppers on Poplar, Rhytidodus decimusquartus
Though we missed the worst of it here in south-east Wales, last Sunday was a miserable day, the rain and gusty winds of Storm Ashley blasting across the British Isles. Luckily for me, the gloom was much cheered by an email verifying my recent record of this leafhopper, Rhytidodus decimusquartus.
It’s always good to have records of new species identified but, in this case, I was particularly chuffed as this was a rare sighting. The Aderyn biodiversity database shows no previous Welsh records, though, when I checked the NBN Atlas to see how many other British records there were, I found one record from 1985 in north Wales (I’m not sure why that’s not showing in Aderyn), and just 30 other British records.
I’m sure you’ll agree that Rhytidodus decimusquartus (previously known as Idiocerus decimusquartus) is a handsome little beastie, just 6-7mm long. The British Bugs website warns that leafhoppers in this group can be very tricky to identify but ‘This species has one unique feature that allows definitive identification: the vertex and pronotum have fine transverse ridges’, and these ridges were clearly visible in my photographs. I’ve now found at least four species of leafhopper on the Lombardy poplars where this little one was lurking so I’ll be heading back very soon to see what other wonders I might discover amongst their leaves (if the leaves are still on the trees after all that wind).
23 Wednesday Oct 2024
I sometimes wonder if I give the impression on here that I always find what I go searching for. That is very far from the truth as today’s blog illustrates.
This year, there’s been a much larger than usual influx of Yellow-browed warblers to the UK from their breeding grounds in Siberia. The only time I’ve seen one of these was back in 2020 and there have been none locally since then, until this past two weeks, when at least four birds have been sighted within walking distance of my home. Have I seen them? Not even a distant feather! And I’ve been looking four times, for two of the birds in two different locations, for over 30 minutes at a time, standing staring at trees and listening in vain for their distinctive calls. Nada!
I ‘celebrated’ my third time dipping (birder-speak for not seeing) these birds with the following tongue-in-cheek post on social media:
My birding day in 3 photographs, which I have entitled ‘Not a Yellow-browed warbler’, ‘Not a Yellow-browed warbler’ & ‘Definitely not a Yellow-browed warbler’.
These are those photos – the birds, in case you’re wondering, are all Chiffchaffs.
earthstar 
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