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~ a celebration of nature

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Category Archives: nature

Second lucky day

12 Friday Aug 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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British butterflies, butterfly, Silver-washed fritillary

My first lucky day happened when I took the new camera for its first outing, and not only produced the Robin photo I posted yesterday but also the Brown argus I blogged about on Wednesday. The very next day I was, if anything, even more lucky, as I found this superb, if rather faded Silver-washed fritillary in a local woodland. Long time followers might remember I found a male Silver-washed frit (A golden surprise) last July, which was in the same woodland. This latest butterfly was quite a distance from last year’s find spot but that may just be because the scarcity of food sources had forced it to fly a little further than usual. This year’s butterfly is a female so I’m hoping she had found/can find a male and laid/will lay some eggs.

220812 silver-washed fritillary

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Twinkle toes

02 Tuesday Aug 2022

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Moorhen, Moorhen chick, Moorhen chick's toes, Moorhen feet, Moorhen toes

Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like to have toes as long as this Moorhen chick? It would be like having toes as long as our bodies. We’d be falling over ourselves trying to move about. But not the Moorhen. Although this little one was still young enough not to have full control over its lengthy extremities, one of its parents put on a display that showed exactly what they’re good for, spreading its weight as it sprinted across the leaves of water lilies, almost as if it was walking on water.

220802 moorhen chick

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Fledged

19 Tuesday Jul 2022

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lesser black-backed gull, Lesser black-backed gull chicks, urban gull chicks, urban gull nest

Last Saturday afternoon, with much screeching and peeping, this year’s Lesser black-backed gull chick fledged from its home amongst a neighbour’s chimney pots – the same location and, presumably, the same pair of gulls as I’ve posted about here before (in The eggs have hatched!, June 2019 and Fledging, July 2020). I’m never sure whether the chicks’ departures from these rooftop nests are deliberate or accidental – some over-jealous wing-flapping, perhaps? But this year it was certainly well timed to miss the scorching heatwave – I can’t begin to imagine what the temperature would be on the rooftops in full sun.

I’m pleased to report the fledgling has made it through its first couple of nights and days. When I headed out early Sunday morning for a walk, it was sitting across the road in the local church grounds, an adult on the roof top keeping an eye on it, and that’s where it seems to have remained, a relatively safe and sheltered spot next to a very busy road. Fingers crossed for its continued survival!

220719 LBB fledgling

p.s. The top two images were taken when it was still in the ‘nest’; the photos are dated 11 and 12 July respectively.

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A hatching

07 Tuesday Jun 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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British butterflies, butterfly egg, Holly blue, Holly blue egg, Holly blue larva

Remember A Holly blue and her egg, my post on 24 May? Well, the egg has now hatched and I’ve had my first glimpses of the larva, so incredibly tiny that, with my poor eyesight, I had to take some macro photographs and look at those to be sure of what I was seeing – spot the hairy larva in the photo on the right below.

220607 holly blue egg and larva

These images were taken one day apart, so the larva can have been no more than 24 hours old at this stage. In his essential publication Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, author Peter Eeles writes: ‘The larva starts to feed by burying its head deep into the bud on which the egg was laid’. This is the first of four stages the larva goes through before it pupates, so I’ll be checking back regularly to try to monitor its progress.

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Leafmines: Agromyza anthracina

30 Monday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in nature

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Agromyza anthracina, fly larvae, fly leafmines, leafmines, leafmines on Nettles

We’ve had a break from leafmines for a while but now the leaves are once again green and lush, it’s time to check them for signs of the mines of munching moth and fly and beetle larvae.

220530 Agromyza anthracina (2)

Today’s example is a new one for me: Agromyza anthracina, a fly whose larvae thrive on Nettles. It’s common in England and, though there aren’t many Welsh records, it seems that’s because it’s under-recorded rather than rare. Since a Twitter friend found mines on Nettles in a local park last week, I’ve found mines in several locations on my walks.

220530 Agromyza anthracina (1)

I’ve lightened these images a lot to try to show more clearly the details of the mines: some are quite intestinal in design and the frass in the galleries is like a child’s scribble pattern.

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Three blues

11 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in nature

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Azure damselfly, Blue-tailed damselfly, British damselflies, Coenagrion puella, Common blue damselfly, Enallagma cyathigerum, Ischnura elegans, Odonata

After spotting my first damselflies of the year (Large reds) on 21 April, there was quite a lull (probably dull-weather-induced) until any further species appeared. But, on a warmer, sunnier day last week (3 May), all three of the more common blue species appeared together. They are:

220511 azure damselfly

Azure damselfly (Coenagrion puella)

220511 common blue damselfly

Common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

220511 blue-tailed damselfly

Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

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Modestly cheerful

13 Sunday Mar 2022

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Common whitlowgrass, Erophila verna, signs of spring, sping wildflowers, Spring colour

‘Modestly cheerful’ – this is how Richard Mabey describes Common whitlowgrass (Erophila verna) in Flora Britannica. He continues: ‘The small white flowers are amongst the first to appear in March, and are followed by seed-pods a little like miniaturised versions of honesty’s.’

220313 common whitlowgrass (1)

He also explains that the name is due to the plant’s use by medieval herbalists to treat whitlows, not a medical condition I was familiar with but which the Oxford Dictionary defines as ‘an abscess in the soft tissue near a fingernail or toenail’. I don’t recommend a Google image search as the condition looks quite gruesome, but these wildflowers, often present in large massed displays, are a delight.

220313 common whitlowgrass (2)

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Moult

15 Tuesday Feb 2022

Posted by sconzani in nature

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British crustaceans, moult, moulting woodlouse, slater, woodlouse

Moult (US molt): noun and verb; (of an animal) shed old feathers, hair, or skin to make way for new growth; origin: Middle English moute, from an Old English verb based on Latin mutare ‘to change’ (Oxford Dictionary).

220215 moulting

Today’s word is inspired by this moulting Woodlouse I found in nearby woodland last week.

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Nut stashers

10 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by sconzani in nature

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birding, birtdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, nuthatch

Today’s lovely long meander took me to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where I watched a large flock of Fieldfares and Redwings worming in the west paddock, enjoyed the antics of the almost-tame Crows that are feed daily by a regular visitor and now expect all humans to feed them, and chuckled at the small birds squabbling over which would get the sunflowers amongst the seed I dished out. The Nuthatches won that game most of the time, repeatedly nabbing two and three at a time to take away and stash for later consumption.

220210 nuthatch

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Dothidella ulmi

29 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi, leaves, nature, trees

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British fungi, Dothidella ulmi, fungi on Wych elm, spots on Wych elm leaves, Wych elm

Fungi come in an amazing variety of forms and colours. Here’s one I found for the first time a week or so ago.

211029 Dothidella ulmi (1)

You’re probably familiar with Sycamore tarspot (Rhytisma acerinum), which makes black spots on the leaves of Sycamore trees. Well, this is superficially similar, though not as widely recorded in Britain: it’s Dothidella ulmi, a fungus that develops under the epidermis of leaves on Elm trees, in this case Wych elm, then erupts in a mass of grey blisters.

211029 Dothidella ulmi (2)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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