Holly blue and Small white

09 Wednesday Apr 2025

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterfly, Holly blue, Small white, white butterflies

Two for the price of one today!
It’s always a joy to see the blue butterflies emerge; it’s like a tiny piece of the sky has fallen to earth and is flitting amongst the flowers and shrubs and along the trees and hedges. The first to appear locally are the Holly blues. My first, on 2 April, was in an unlikely place; as I walked past, it flitted out from the street-side hedge of a house a few streets away from where I live. There was no Holly or Ivy in sight but perhaps those larval plants were growing in a nearby back garden that I couldn’t see in to.

Next to appear, just a couple of days later, was a Small white that was already looking a bit tatty. It seems its short life was proving to be a challenge, escaping from bird attacks or, perhaps, getting snagged in vegetation. My second Small white was pristine, feeding along a field edge so abundant with Blackthorn blossom that the area had attracted six species of butterfly: as well as the Small white, there were Speckled wood, Comma, another Holly blue, Brimstone, and my first Orange-tip of 2025 (which will feature in a future blog, as soon as one stays still long enough for a photo).

Mining bees

08 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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Andrena species, Andrenidae, bees, British bees, mining bees, solitary bees

Mining bees, the Adrenidae, are notoriously difficult to identify I find, and, as my brain is already swimming with factors to consider when identifying spiders (and other life stuff that is happening in the background), I don’t have the mental capacity to tackle bees at the moment. Maybe they can be next year’s project.

In the meantime though, I can still appreciate how exceedingly cute they are, especially when they sit still for a few moments (which isn’t often) and allow me to get some close up photos (also not often).

Peacocks aplenty

04 Friday Apr 2025

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Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

I didn’t see my first Peacock butterfly (Aglais io) of the year until 30 March, which is much later than usual – these are butterflies that overwinter as adults so can emerge from hibernation on warm sunny days even in winter. Now, just six days later, my count is up to eight, as we – and the butterflies – bask in a spell of unseasonally dry and warm spring weather.

I’ve discovered that, when I first see a new butterfly species each year, I have a tendency, a predilection, a need even to photograph every single one I see, as if taking their image makes them real – or perhaps it’s just my attempt to capture the heartfelt joy I feel at seeing butterflies on the wing, and relive that feeling when I’m looking at my photographs at home. After a few days, and having seen several, I begin to relax and focus more on taking better images – at least, I think the photograph below, taken today, is better than the earlier ones above.

Speckled woods on the wing

01 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

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British butterflies, butterfly, Speckled wood, spring butterflies, Spring colour, Wood argus

Sunday was a brilliant day for butterflies, with my first three Speckled woods of the year, each in a different location, all basking on hedgerows and flitting out to defend their territories as I passed by.

With its rich chocolately brown background colour mixed with small circular dollops of creamy yellow, it’s almost like a living crème egg … or is my imagination just being overly affected by the bombarding of pre-Easter advertisements?

My brilliant guide book, Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, tells me that the Speckled wood was once called the Wood argus, the name Argus coming from the ‘many-eyed shepherd of Greek mythology’. That seems a very apt name for this beautiful creature.

Leafhopper: Mocydia crocea

29 Saturday Mar 2025

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British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhopper, Mocydia crocea

Though I’d seen a few tiny green leafhoppers flitting around Bramble bushes on warm sunny days, this gorgeous little creature is the first leafhopper I’ve managed to get photographs of this year, and, even better, it’s a species I’ve not seen before. This is Mocydia crocea, a stunningly marked hopper which, according to the British Bugs website, can be found ‘amongst grass in many habitats, from woodlands to hay meadows.’ It’s supposed to be widespread but there were just 22 records in the Welsh database before I added this one.

The British Bugs website also warns that this species can be tricky to identify as it is easily confused with two other species but there’s a handy photo showing the features to look for and I’m fairly confident I’ve identified this correctly.

10-spot ladybird

27 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, ladybird

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10-spot ladybird, Adalia decempunctata, British ladybirds, ten-spot ladybird

This sweet little creature was a lovely surprise on the park railings earlier. It was tiny, looked only half the size of the many Harlequins that were lumbering along nearby.

I wasn’t sure which of the ladybird species it was until I got home and checked. Though its colours and markings can vary greatly, this is a 10-spot ladybird (Adalia decempunctata), a species I’ve only seen once before and that was back in 2016.

They prefer woody places, whether they be actual woodland or parks or simply gardens with plenty of trees, and they can be found from now until October, so I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for more.

Starlings and bee-flies

26 Wednesday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects

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birding, birdwatching, Bombylius major, British birds, Dark-edged bee-fly, starling

Starlings and bee-flies may seem like an odd combination but these were the highlights of yesterday’s walk. First, I listened spellbound to the extraordinary range of sounds this gorgeous Starling and its friends were producing – and I’ve heard that the human ear isn’t capable of hearing the full range of its acoustic repertoire, which is even more astounding. And don’t even get me started on those fabulous feathers.

Meander … amble … stroll … and I ended up having a mooch around my favourite scruffy and neglected Cardiff park, which always manages to turn up something special (as long as you ignore the rubbish and the occasional druggie lurking in the vegetation). Yesterday, up popped my first two Dark-edged bee-flies (Bombylius major) of 2025, those little bundles of flying fluff that hide a dark and gruesome lifecycle of parasitism on their solitary bee cousins. They are cute to look at though.

Staring at willows

21 Friday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring, trees

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Bombus hypnorum, Bombus terrestris, Brimstone, British butterflies, Buff-tailed bumblebee, butterflies feeding on willow flowers, insects feeding on willow flowers, insects on willow, Small tortoiseshell, Tree bumblebee, willow

This is your occasional reminder, if you are interested in spotting flying insects, that it is a very good idea at this time of year, when the various willows (Salix species) are coming in to flower, to spend a little staring at these trees. That is partly how I came to find so many butterflies yesterday. Several of the Brimstones I saw, in particular the two females that were feeding up prior to egg-laying, and the beautiful Small tortoiseshell were all found initially on willow flowers.

The fluffy yellow flowers were also providing much needed sustenance for a variety of flies, for honey bees and hoverflies. Due to their larger size, I was also able to see at least two species of bumblebee, Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) (left below) and Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) (below right).

Happy Spring!

20 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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Brimstone, British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, female Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small tortoiseshell

With a high temperature of 18º Celsius, the warmest day of the year so far, and lashings of sunshine, butterflies appeared as if by magic during this morning’s five-mile walk. In total, I spotted 13 butterflies of four species today, and it was simply enchanting. What better way to celebrate the vernal equinox than with a profusion of butterflies!

Brimstones were the most abundant, with nine seen. This gorgeous creature was my first female Brimstone of the year.

There were two Commas. One stayed high in the trees but this beauty was more obliging.

This Red admiral was looking quite tatty after surviving the long cold winter.

I was delighted to see this Small tortoiseshell, as they were very scarce here last year. At first, it was feeding high in a willow but my patience paid off when it came gliding down to perch on a nearby Bramble bush.

Earwig for lunch

19 Wednesday Mar 2025

Posted by sconzani in birds, insects

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, earwig, Rock pipit, Rock pipit catches earwig

I’ve been walking across Cardiff Bay’s Barrage and back quite frequently in the past fortnight, searching the skies and the rocks for the migrating birds that normally appear around this time: Sand martins, Wheatear, Swallows and anything else that decides to drop in for a stopover on its flight north.

And that was what I was doing around midday today when I spotted two Rock pipits grazing on the Barrage’s grassy slopes. I sat on a conveniently placed bench and watched them for a while as they pecked and poked around the low-growing grasses and wildflowers.

Both were collecting invertebrates too tiny for me to see but then one Rockit, the birders’ abbreviation for Rock pipit, found itself an earwig. Though the little insect was squirming for its life, the Rockit had it grasped firmly and, for the earwig, there was no escaping its fate. A couple of quick whacks and down the Rockit’s hatch it went, a tasty lunchtime morsel.