Category Archives: autumn

Winter 16 wildflowers

20 Wednesday Nov 2024

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Those of us who love wildflowers are now checking each week to see which wildflowers we can find that are still in bloom. These are a selection of those I found when wandering around my local area last Sunday. I thought they’d make a nice cheery mid-week post, especially as the temperatures have now plunged towards winter levels and flower numbers will no doubt diminish accordingly.

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My image shows Bramble, Bush vetch, Creeping buttercup, Creeping thistle, Daisy, Dandelion, Field madder, Hedge woundwort, Herb Robert, Knapweed, Mayweed, Nipplewort, Pineapple weed, Ragwort, Self heal, and Sun spurge.

Autumn in Bute Park

17 Sunday Nov 2024

Posted by in autumn, leaves, trees

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As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I recently enjoyed a long meander around Bute Park, in Cardiff, delighting in the kaleidoscope of autumn colours.

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The 130-acre park is part parkland, part playing fields, part woodland, and part landscaped garden, including an arboretum full of spectacular trees from around the world, so my photos include not only native but also exotic trees.

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Lucky last?

14 Thursday Nov 2024

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Is this the last butterfly I’ll see in 2024? Quite possibly, as the overnight temperatures have now started to fall to single digits. Still, Red admirals are very resilient and, though they should have migrated south by now, I’m seeing reports of the odd one, like this beauty I spotted in a local field on Tuesday, still flying when the sun occasionally appears.

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Leafmines: Ectoedemia argyropeza

11 Monday Nov 2024

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The new leafmines are coming thick and fast this year, not because my skills are improving but rather because I’m following the right people on social media and take my inspiration for searching from what they’re finding.

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Today’s leafmines, made by the larvae of the moth Ectoedemia argyropeza, can be found on Aspen (Populus tremula) between July and November. They are easier to spot later in the season when the leaves turn brown and begin to fall as the mines cause the surrounding leaf area to remain green – the so-called ‘green islands’ that some moth species have the ability to create through the chemicals they secrete, which allows them to continue feeding in their portion of the leaf. The other thing to look for with these miners is the brown mark in the leaf petiole, where the mine originated.

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Though I don’t often bring home the mines I find, in this instance I had been unable to get good photos along the busy road so brought home one leaf. I temporarily forgot about the leaf for a couple of days and , when I opened the little pot it was in, found the larva had left the mine so I am also able to show you what it looks like, below.

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The Blackberry man

10 Sunday Nov 2024

Posted by in autumn, plants, wildflowers

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This post was prompted by my bumping in to ‘The Blackberry man’ during yesterday’s walk. I don’t know his name; he’s just a random stranger I got talking to two winters ago during a walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. I was picking a few Blackberries to eat, he was filling a small container to take home for his family. He’s an older man, originally from a Middle Eastern country, and doesn’t have great English, but we got by. And now, whenever we see each other at the park, we stop and chat for a few minutes.

Seeing him led me to look more closely at the Brambles. The majority of plants had already flowered, produced berries and the fruit that hadn’t been eaten had gone to seed but, scattered here and there amongst the plants, there were still a few flowers, and a few immature and ripe berries.

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I also couldn’t help but admire the exceptional colour variations and intensity of colour displayed by the Bramble leaves as autumn progresses. So, thank you Blackberry man, for reminding me to look more closely at these often-overlooked plants.

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More grassland gems

08 Friday Nov 2024

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After a week when our skies have been grey and damp and low-cloudy due to something the weather forecasters have labelled ‘anti-cyclonic gloom’, and when voters’ choices have darkened the world around us even more, I feel the need for some colour for fungi Friday. So, here are more lovely waxcaps, photographed during another recent cemetery visit and at my local country park.

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68!

07 Thursday Nov 2024

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68! That’s the number of hoverfly larvae I found when turning over Sycamore leaves in a damp shady spot in one of my local parks last week. And they were all plump and well grown so had obviously been feasting well on aphids. (I have noticed during my leaf fossicking this year that, while insect numbers overall have been well down on previous years, the numbers of aphid seem about usual, which means that those creatures feeding on aphids seem also to have been thriving.)

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The hoverfly larvae were of only two types, the Epistrophe grossulariae shown above (these larvae are usually green but turn an orange-brown colour in the autumn, an effective camouflage tactic – hence the two colour variations shown here), and those from the various Syrphus species shown below (it’s not possible to be more specific as to the exact identification of these larvae).

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Mipits in the Bay

05 Tuesday Nov 2024

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This time of year can be fairly quiet in Cardiff Bay bird-wise. Any migrating birds have mostly passed through, and the weather has been quite calm, which means that none of the rarities we are lucky enough to see during the winter months have yet appeared. The one bright light in my birding day when I walk around the Bay is the return of those birds that left to breed elsewhere but have now returned to overwinter in the Bay’s calmer conditions.

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One of those birds is the Meadow pipit. Though there are Rock pipits in the Bay all year round, they look very grey compared to the rich spicy brown of the Meadow pipits newly moulted plumage so they’re easy to identify, even when they perch on the Barrage rocks.

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Most of the time, the Meadow pipits can be found poking about in grassy areas, looking for tasty insects but, when disturbed, they frequently pop up on to higher spots, like fences, until they feel it’s safe to fly down to the ground again.

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Rowan, the thinker

03 Sunday Nov 2024

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Did you know there is an ancient Celtic zodiac, with trees as the symbols for each of the thirteen (moon-cycle-based, hence thirteen not twelve) signs? I didn’t, until I saw a post on Instagram by the extremely talented artist Luke Adam Hawker, who has just released a series of etchings, one for each of the signs (I wish I could afford to buy the etching for my sign!).

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Along with the tree images he’s been posting, he’s also listed information about the qualities attributed to people born under each sign. The Rowan tree is the symbol for a person born between 21 January and 17 February, summarised as The Thinker, and the qualities they are said to possess are as follows:

Philosophical visionaries with original and creative minds, often misunderstood due to their passionate ideals. Despite a cool exterior, they burn with inner passion, transforming situations and inspiring others with their unique perspectives.

Are you a Thinker? Do you recognise yourself in this description?

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The Rowans in my images, taken at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery during a recent wander, are lush with berries at the moment, providing welcome fodder for both local birds and the winter thrushes currently arriving from Europe and Scandinavia.

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