Slip-sliding

02 Saturday Dec 2023

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bird on ice, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, female mallard, icy pond, Mallard

After a few sub-zero-Celsius nights and not much higher daytime temperatures, the pond at Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve had mostly frozen over, and the Mallards and a Coot were sticking to a small open area on the far side. But, when a couple arrived with food for the birds, Ms Mallard was tempted out of her little patch of unfrozen water to reach the treats. I felt a bit mean but I couldn’t help laughing at her slip-sliding her way across the ice.

231202 mallard

Snowy disco

01 Friday Dec 2023

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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British fungi, Lachnum virgineum, Snowy disco, white cup fungi, white fungi, woodland fungi

Though many parts of Britain are currently revelling in their first snowfalls of the winter, here in my part of south Wales the white of a crisp frost is as close as we’ve got to that beauty and the only snow of note is a fungus, with the very appropriate name of Snowy disco (Lachnum virgineum).

231201 snowy disco (1)

Though there are other white cup-shaped fungi, this one can be distinguished by the hairiness of its short stem and the underside of the cup. That hairiness is also the reason you often see these tiny cups with miniscule droplets of water attached – the water ‘sticks’ to the hairs. Though these fungi are described as widespread and common, I don’t see them very often and, in fact, I only found these because I was picking up small logs in a woodland to check for any invertebrates beneath them. The Snowy disco was a very nice bonus!

231201 snowy disco (2)

Noble false widow

30 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in spiders

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British spiders, false widow, false widow spiders, Noble false widow, Steodata nobilis

I found my first false widow spider, a Noble false widow (Steodata nobilis), at the end of October but it’s taken a few weeks for confirmation of my identification to filter through the recording system, hence the delay in showing you this little beauty. It had chosen its spot well: the outer wall of an apartment block, on the southern side where it could enjoy any sun and with a nearby crack between building and boundary wall where it could escape when threatened.

231130 false widow spider

People often freak about spiders, and the false widows get some bad press because they get confused with the black widows (Latrodectus spp.), but these creatures are relatively harmless, especially when treated with respect. Yes, they might give a person a little nip if they’re trapped (e.g. in clothing) but so would you if you felt trapped and in danger, right? (The Natural History Museum website has a great page on identifying these lovely spiders.)

A Moorhen reflects

29 Wednesday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Moorhen, Moorhen reflections, reflections

The lake is still overflowing from all the recent rain and that overflow area is more still that the waters of the lake itself. When I approached yesterday to check out which birds were present, this Moorhen was walking along the edge, its progress so slow that it wasn’t disturbing the watery reflections. The day was dull and grey so the light on the bird was not the best but I still took rather a lot of photos.

231129 moorhen reflects

Leafhopper: Ribautiana tenerrima

28 Tuesday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhopper, leafhopper on Bramble, Ribautiana tenerrima

Over the years I’ve seen many small green-looking leafhoppers on Bramble and, knowing that small green-looking leafhoppers can be very difficult to identify, I’ve tended to ignore them. Last week, when Bramble-leaf-turning, I noticed that these little hoppers had some quite subtle markings on their backs (some with more saturated colour than others) that might help to distinguish them from others of their kin and, as they were keeping relatively still, I was able to get some photos (though grainy due to the dim light).

231128 Ribautiana tenerrima (1)

These have now been confirmed as Ribautiana tenerrima sensu lato, one of the most common species in Britain, that can be seen on Brambles and several other plant species between June and December. As there are other very similar Ribautiana species, for recording purposes, where we can’t distinguish one from the other, we use the catch-all name Ribautiana tenerrima sensu lato, with sensu lato meaning ‘in the broad sense’.

231128 Ribautiana tenerrima (2)

Leafmines: Stigmella anomalella

27 Monday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants

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British leafminers, Dog rose, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafminers, moth leafmines on Dog rose, Stigmella anomalella

This particular Dog rose (Rosa canina) was generous with its leafminers. Not only did I see the feeding signs and case-bearing larva of Coleophora gryphipennella (see my 13 November blog post) but I also found my first leafmines of Stigmella anomalella, also known appropriately enough as the Rose leaf miner (there are photos of the adult moth on the UK Moths website).

231127 Stigmella anomalella

As you can see, the larvae create long meandering galleries that are initially narrow and completely filled with frass, then later widen to show clear space on either side of the line of frass. The British Leafminers website notes that the gallery often ‘crosses back over itself’ as my image shows – well, actually, it’s crossing back under itself, but you get the idea. I was also lucky to spot larvae in mines on two of the leaves I looked at. These mines can be found around July and then again between October and December, so check out those Dog rose leaves before they all fall.

231127 Stigmella anomalella (2)

Three campions

26 Sunday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in wildflowers

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Bladder campion, Red campion, Silene dioica, Silene latifolia, Silene vulgaris, White campion

Here are three campions I’ve found during this week’s walks. The first was a late-flowering surprise I found on Wednesday and is in the best condition of these three campions as it was photographed before the hard frost we had yesterday, Saturday. This is the lovely Red campion (Silene dioica).

231126 red campion

The White campion (Silene latifolia) also looked lovely when I saw it on Wednesday but these photos were taken today so the flowers were showing the effects of the weather, drooping, wet from this morning’s drizzle, the petals almost transparent but still pretty. I’ve included a second photo, a side view of the flower so you can see the difference between White and the third campion, below, which also has white petals.

231126 white campion

And this is the third campion of the week, very much past its best now, with the merest slivers of petals still remaining. The shape that gives the Bladder campion (Silene vulgaris) its name is very obvious and, once again, I’ve included a second image, this one taken in June, to show this pretty flower at its best.

231126 bladder campion

Saw-fly

25 Saturday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Arge pagana, British sawflies, Dog rose, sawfly egg scar, Sawfly name, sawfly scar on rose

Did you know that the sawfly gets its name from the way it lays its eggs? Innocuous little flies, like the beauty shown below (Arge pagana, one of the UK species that uses the rose as its larval plant), have an in-built saw-like body part that they use to cut a slot in their larval plant material and in that slot they lay their eggs.

231125 Arge pagana

On some plants, like the stems of the various Rosa species used by Arge pagana, the slot leaves quite a substantial scar and, this week, for the first time, I noticed one of these when checking Dog roses for leafmines. As you can see, there’s a healthy leaf bud right next to the scar so the plant doesn’t seem to have been damaged by the slot-making process, though the voracious larvae that hatched from the eggs earlier in the year may well have stripped the rose of many of its leaves.

231125 sawfly egg scar

Waxcap Friday

24 Friday Nov 2023

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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autumn colour, autumn fungi, Ballerina waxcap, Cuphophyllus virgineus, Gliophorus psittacinus, Hygrocybe coccinea, parrot waxcap, Pink waxcap, Porpolomopsis calyptriformis, Scarlet waxcap, Snowy waxcap, waxcaps

Green, pink, red and white are just some of the colours you can see in the diverse range of fungi known as waxcaps. These are some I’ve found during recent fungi-seeking forays.

231124 waxcap parrot