Little grebe on a mission

07 Saturday Nov 2026

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birding, birding at Roath Park Lake, birds at Roath Park Lake, birdwatching, British birds, little grebe, Roath Park Lake

During a recent walk around the parks of north Cardiff, I took a turn around Roath Park Lake. The lake is home to a large population of birds; some – Canada and Greylag geese, Mute swans, Coots – are resident year round, others appear in the autumn to over-winter at the lake, so I always like to check on any new arrivals at this time of year. This particular day was warm and sunny, and I was leaning on the railing at the southern edge of the lake, where a wide bench-lined path runs across the top of the embankment dam, when I spotted this Little grebe. These birds usually shy away but this little one swam straight towards me, intent on checking out the water at the edge of the embankment, presumably having had luck with its fishing there before. And, as I watched, I was pleased to see it was lucky with its fishing again that day.

Porcelain fungus revisited

06 Friday Nov 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi

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British fungi, fungi on Beech, Oudemansiella mucida, Porcelain Fungus

I do love it when a plan comes together.

When I visited North Cardiff’s Cefn Onn Park recently, in search of the Wood cauliflower fungus, I had quite a thorough mooch around the rest of the park. In particular, I wanted to check a huge old fallen Beech tree where I’d previously found Porcelain fungus (Oudemansiella mucida).

As you can see from the photos here, I was not disappointed. The tree and its many thick fallen branches were all oozing with this stunning fungus, from tiny round balls just appearing from cracks in the bark to large, fully formed specimens, characteristically dripping with moisture.

This is not a fungus I see very frequently and I’ve blogged about it when I have, so for snippets of information see Pretty in Porcelain, October 2025, and The fungus that looks like porcelain, October 2016.

A Scaup flies in

04 Wednesday Nov 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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birding, birds in Cardiff Bay, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, drake Scaup, Scaup

While I was away in Eastbourne, the first Scaup of the winter, a drake, turned up in Cardiff Bay. Though I was busy catching up on various chores on my first day back at home, fortunately for me, this handsome duck lingered long enough for me to see it the following day. As it was fraternising with a small flock of Tufted ducks on the River Taff approximately 20 feet (6 metres) below the A4232 road bridge, the Scaup wasn’t at a location where it was easy to photograph. And, to make matters worse, it was a bright sunny day, which is always challenging when you’re trying to capture images of a bird with a lot of white/light grey plumage. I hoped the bird would stay a few more days so I could try again but it flew away before I could revisit the location.

First Firecrest of the autumn

02 Monday Nov 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Firecrest

The day before I headed off on my Eastbourne holiday I managed to find my first – quite possibly my only – Firecrest of the autumn, and, amazingly, this was at my first attempt. Maybe I’m slowly getting better at this birding lark! On this occasion, I went looking in a local park where Firecrests were seen last year. It took about an hour of watching, waiting, walking a little way along the path, more watching, more waiting, moving to another part of the park where I’d had lucky previously, watching, waiting … then, ta-daaaah! Not the most crisp of shots, I’ll grant you, but certainly recognisable as a Firecrest, so I’ll take it.

Herring gulls

30 Friday Oct 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Herring gull

As you might expect, given I was staying in a town by the seaside, the most numerous bird species I saw during my week in Eastbourne was the Herring gull, through all its juvenile stages to white-and-grey-plumaged adult. So, of course, I took photos of some that caught my eye.

One of the juveniles was gracefully sipping a drink of relatively fresh water from a puddle along the Eastbourne seafront.

Lifeguards might not have been on duty at Eastbourne beach but the many Herring gulls were always keeping an eye out.

This adult was sitting on a rooftop on one of the buildings on Eastbourne pier, hoping one of the many visitors would accidentally drop some morsels of the food they all seemed to be eating.

During my second day at Birling Gap, the weather was quite wild, with occasional driving rain and constant strong winds. The gulls were loving the wind, cliff surfing along the coastline, 30 feet (9 metres) above the beach for them, eye level for me. I loved watching them and took a lot of photos, though the combination of me trying to stand still and the birds’ movement meant most turned out a little blurry.

On the final day of my holiday, spent meandering around the Seven Sisters Country Park, one of the last birds I saw as I headed for the bus was this Herring gull. Though I might be guilty of anthropomorphising the scene, I detect a satisfied grin on the bird’s face as it bashes the crab it’s caught on a rock to break it in to edible pieces.

A pair of Ruff

29 Thursday Oct 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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birding, birding at Seven Sisters Country Park, birdwatching, British birds, Calidris pugnax, Ruff, Seven Sisters Country Park

On my last day in East Sussex I returned once again to the Seven Sisters Country Park, the place that had drawn me back to this stunning part of England’s southern coastline, and walked out to the sea and back along both sides of the river, hoping, though not really expecting, to find one last birding surprise before I had to return home. There were Curlew and a couple of Bar-tailed godwits, Brent geese and Wigeon, a few Greylags amongst the big flocks of Canada geese – all lovely to see, of course, just not that something special I was wishing for. And then, when I was almost back at the carpark of the Cuckmere Inn, a little thought popped into my mind – maybe I should take one more quick look along the path out to the western side of the river.

And there they were, quite close to the path, browsing amongst the vegetation of the saltmarsh. Now, I have to admit that, as I don’t see them very often and have never seen a male and female in winter plumage together before, I didn’t initially recognise these waders, and I actually thought they were two different species. Given the substantial difference in their size and colouring, I think you can probably see why.

These are Ruff (Calidris pugnax). As you would expect, the male is the larger bird, coloured in shades of black, white and grey, and the female – actually known as a Reeve – is the smaller, buff and brown coloured bird. Both were beautiful, and I was overjoyed to find and then to spend quite a bit of time watching them. Seeing these two stunning birds was the best possible finale to what had been a wonderful week in East Sussex.

Late Lepidoptera in East Sussex

28 Wednesday Oct 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature

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British butterflies, British lepidoptera, British moths, Clouded yellow, Common blue, Humming-bird hawk-moth, Lepidoptera, Red Admiral, Small copper

Though I thought I would probably see a few Clouded yellows and perhaps a late-migrating Red admiral, I didn’t really expect to see many butterflies during my week in East Sussex, and most of the time the weather was too wild and windy for small invertebrates to be on the wing.

Above, one of several Clouded yellows, and, below, a slightly tatty Red admiral – will it attempt the migration flight or simply fade away in southern Britain?

However, as is often the case, when the sun is shining even the smallest sheltered spot can hold some super surprises. This was one of three Common blues I saw flitting about amongst the low-growing wildflowers between areas of scrub on Beachy Head, most unexpected in such an exposed location.

As well as a few Painted ladies, Speckled woods, and Small whites, I was also delighted to spot a couple of Small copper butterflies, a species I certainly didn’t expect to see again this year.

Probably the biggest surprise, though, was this stunning Humming-bird hawk-moth, flitting about the lovely seaside flower gardens along Eastbourne Promenade, at the western end of the beach. A late autumn delight!

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

26 Monday Oct 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, plants, seaside, wildflowers

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Dartford warbler, Glasswort, Redshank, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, Salicornia species, Twiggy mullein, Verbascum virgatum, Viper's-bugloss, Wigeon

On Wednesday 14 October I ventured away from the Eastbourne area, taking the train to Rye to visit the magnificent Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. And it was just as good as I remembered, though a dry summer of heatwaves has led to severe drought across much of southern England and this was very apparent in the low water levels at the reserve, meaning the birds were even more distant than usual. Also, I hadn’t realised that the northern half of the reserve was closed due to a deadly combination of bird flu, avian botulism, and periods of blue-green algae in the waterways. Not surprisingly, this rather restricted where I could walk, but it’s a huge reserve so I still managed to clock up several miles and saw some very nice fauna and flora during my visit.

As the Glassworts (Salicornia species) lose their chlorophyll they change to vivid shades of red and purple, rust and terracotta making the autumn colours of the saltmarsh just gorgeous.

There were two birding highlights for me during this visit; the first will be revealed in tomorrow’s blog, the second was the wonderful surprise of finding another Dartford warbler (you’ll recall I also found one at Belle Tout). This little one was rather more of the skulking type, and only allowed me to get a couple of distant photos.

Redshanks were abundant. This one was grabbing 40 winks in a quiet corner.

Wigeon were also plentiful. Snoozing, cruising, and munching on vegetation – such is the life of this handsome duck.

A sprinkling of wildflowers were still in bloom on the shingle; this lovely Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare) was one.

I was also delighted to see this new-to-me Twiggy Mullein (Verbascum virgatum), a very pretty wildflower with quite tall stems covered in lovely yellow flowers, another locally common shingle-growing plant.

Clustered bellflower

25 Sunday Oct 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, wildflowers

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autumn wildflowers, autumn wildflowers in bloom, British wildflowers, Campanula glomerata, Clustered bellflower, wildflowers of chalk grassland

I wasn’t expecting to discover any new flora during my East Sussex trip, especially in mid October, so finding two new plant species was an unexpected highlight. This is the first, Clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata).

I was alerted to the possibility of seeing these flowers through a social media post a fortnight before my trip by a birder from the local area, though I wasn’t sure if they would still be in bloom, nor how easy they would be to find. I was also a little concerned by what I read about the flower in my Flora Britannica:

Its bunches of trumpet-shaped violet-blue flowers on shortish stems persist until quite late in the summer – which makes its flowering period overlap with that of the autumn gentian. It should perhaps be called ‘fool’s gentian’ from the number of occasions on which the two species are confused.

Having never seen Clustered bellflower or Autumn gentian before, I could turn out to be the fool!

Fortunately for me, the plant was easily found, growing in the short turf in several of the more sheltered places along the chalk cliff tops, though these specimens appear more stunted than is usual, perhaps because of the dry summer. And, as you can see from my photos, it was still in bloom. And, even better, its downy leaves meant it was reasonably easy to distinguish from Autumn gentian.

Dartford warblers

24 Saturday Oct 2026

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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Belle Tout, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Curruca undata, Dartford warbler, Dartford warbler near Belle Tout

Though I see a lot of very fine birds during the hours I spend walking in Nature, I don’t often find them myself – I have usually heard about them through my WhatsApp group or my contacts on social media – so there is something especially rewarding and satisfying about finding a special bird myself.

And that’s what happened twice during my recent week in East Sussex, the same bird species both times. The birds were Dartford warblers (Curruca undata), and I found the first in scrub below the former lighthouse at Belle Tout.

These birds are frequently found in the company of Stonechats and often seen perching on the tops of Gorse bushes. Both Stonechats and Gorse were abundant in the area of scrub where I was walking, and I had just been thinking that, given how many Stonechats there were and how much Gorse, there really should be a Dartford warbler, when … boom! I heard its distinctive call from the bushes down the slope from where I was standing, and then up it popped.

These warblers are notorious for skulking in bushes, frustrating bird watchers by their teasing behaviour, giving tantalisingly brief views before disappearing for long periods into the undergrowth (and that’s exactly what happened when I spotted my second Dartford warbler of the trip at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve a couple of days later; blog about Rye to follow).

So, I was exceedingly lucky that this first Dartford warbler showed well for me. I even saw it interacting with other birds, first with the Stonechats and then, as you can see from my sequence of three photos here, with a male Blackcap that was probably about to head off on its migration journey.

Dartford warblers themselves don’t migrate but they do often disperse from their breeding locations during the autumn, and this is probably what was happening with the two I saw, as they are not usually seen in the locations where I found them. As you can imagine, I was over the moon with my special finds.