23 Friday Oct 2020
With our weather much wetter and temperatures not too cold, October should be a good month for spotting fungi but I haven’t been finding much during my daily meanders. So, it was good to spot a piece of wood with the early stages of Candlesnuff (Xylaira hypoxylon) fungi growing out of it.
I’ve blogged about this lovely fungus before so to find out more about it, click on The right snuff, December 2016.
21 Wednesday Oct 2020
Posted in nature
During yesterday’s walk along the southern edge of Cardiff Bay, I spotted this huge metre-long fish cruising along sluggishly very close to the embankment. Turns out it was a Salmon, possibly returning to the Bay after having spawned somewhere high up in the River Taff.
Sadly, this fish has probably now reached the end of its life … but what a life! As Will Millard kindly explained on Twitter, this Salmon may have
been born in the Taff, migrated to sea, possibly even as far as Greenland, to pile on weight, mass and muscle over a few years, before returning, hundreds of miles home to spawn and then die. It’s sad when any animal comes to the end of its life, but what a story & other life is sustained from the salmon carcass. In parts of Canada and Alaska whole forests gain massive parts of their nutrients purely from salmon dying at the end of the salmon run.
Will also explained that Salmon often develop skin infections during times of stress, which may explain the pale, ‘cotton wool’-like appearance of parts of its skin.
03 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in nature
I’ve been saving this photo, taken quite recently, on 22 September, for just such a day as this. We are currently under the thumb of Storm Alex, the Met Office having issued a yellow warning for heavy rain and wind gusts over 20mph until midday tomorrow. So, to me, this is the perfect day to post this gorgeous Peacock butterfly, a heartening splash of bold cheery colour.
02 Friday Oct 2020
Posted in nature
With rain forecast for the following few days, I was determined to enjoy my meander along the coast, and it was certainly not difficult to do. So many Swallows, perhaps thousands, were swooping low over the fields, feeding up before heading out across the water, that I spent rather a lot of time just standing, watching, smiling at the sight of them.
There were Linnets too – one flock held more than 200 birds, and a smattering of Meadow pipits and Skylarks, though it wasn’t until I got back to town that I had wonderfully close views of one particular Skylark.
It was rather incongruously poking about a large grassed area on top of the seaside cliffs, optimistically labelled a ‘park’ by the local council, which is usually devoid of anything but human and canine life. What a splendid bird!
04 Friday Sep 2020
Tags
autumn berries, birding, birdwatching, blackberries, bramble, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Pheasant, pheasant eating blackberries
A rustle of vegetation … an eye … who’s this lurking behind the ‘snipe paddock’ fence at Cosmeston?
A female Pheasant? A common enough bird in the local countryside but not normally seen here in this dog-full park. She has quite short tail feathers and she’s not too bothered about my presence so I presume she’s a juvenile.
It seems she’s quite partial to blackberries.
Are there more of those delicious treats?
Aha, yes, another ripe one.
And, after scoffing those couple of berries, she wanders off in search of more.
03 Thursday Sep 2020
Posted in nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
Amphibious bistort, amphibious wildflower, British flora, British wildflowers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Persicaria amphibia
Initially, I doubted my identification of this plant – I’d seen it growing in clumps in the waters of Cosmeston Country Park’s west lake, so how could this be the same plant growing in a section of meadow, albeit a damp area where reeds are abundant?
The Great crested grebes like to park themselves amongst the plant, perhaps to stop them drifting while they snooze.
The clue, of course, is in its name: amphibious, ‘relating to, living in, or suited for both land and water’ (Oxford Dictionary). Amphibious bistort (Persicaria amphibia) has two forms, one that resembles a water lily, floating its leaves upon the water surface, and another that lives quite happily on land that can be quite a distance from water, as long as that land is moist.
This second type also shows the somewhat more elongated leaves that its generic name refers to – persicaria ‘relates the shape of leaves of this group of plants to those of a peach tree’ (First Nature) – and the land-based form has hairy leaves, which the water-growing form does not. To clinch the identification, my book (The Wild Flower Key) says to look for two stigmas in most flowers, which Amphibious bistort has but similar species do not. And very pretty flowers they are too!
02 Wednesday Sep 2020
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, gull chick, Lesser black-backed gull, Lesser black-backed gull juvenile, urban gull nest
I feel a bit like a proud parent sharing photos of their child when I post news of the Lesser black-backed gull that was born amongst a neighbour’s chimney pots but … here’s junior, a month on from the last update. It still comes back to the nest area almost every day, still screeches pleadingly at its parents for food, but it seems to be doing well, and looked rather splendid in the soft light early this morning.
01 Tuesday Sep 2020
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, juvenile Reed warbler, Reed warbler
One highlight of a bumper birding day at Cosmeston last Friday was seeing rather than just hearing a little family of Reed warblers (they frequently hide away amongst the reeds so only their distinctive call can be heard). I caught glimpses of birds moving in the greenery, then recognised the constant call of a youngster and figured I had a better than usual chance of seeing something, as young birds are often less wary than adults.
So, I waited … and I waited … and after 7-8 minutes, this little cutie popped out, foraged, hopped up and down the reed stems, and poked about in the bushes.
And then, judging by how often it kept closing its eyes, I think it headed back into cover amongst the reeds for a snooze.
31 Monday Aug 2020
Tags
aberrant Meadow brown, British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, Green-veined white, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Small copper, Small tortoiseshell
To celebrate – or, perhaps, to mourn – the last calendar day of summer, here’s a tribute to some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve seen in recent days, just because, when they’re gone, I’m really going to miss their magic.
A Comma doing what they do so well when their wings are closed – blending in.
Most of the white butterflies I’ve seen lately have been Small whites so this Green-veined white stood out from the crowd.
Here’s another that stood out – an aberrant Meadow brown. There always has to be one!
The heat wave a couple of weeks ago seems to have brought in a small influx of Painted ladies, though nothing like the numbers we had last year.
Have you ever noticed how much Red admirals like blackberries? And their colours blend in to this background rather well.
Small tortoiseshells have been having a good year locally, which has been a real treat. I even found two feeding on Red valerian right at the edge of one of the local beaches this morning.
A delightful surprise from Saturday’s walk at Cosmeston, a pristine Small copper.
30 Sunday Aug 2020
Posted in nature, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Common knapweed, Devil's-bit scabious, odd-coloured wild flowers, pink-flowered Devil's-bit scabious, white-flowered Common knapweed
I’ve mentioned before here on the blog the white flowers of the usually pink-flowered Common centaury (Small and white, July 2020) and the blue flowers of the usually orange-red-flowered Scarlet pimpernel (The Pimpernels, July 2017). Today, I have another couple of wildflower oddities for you.
Pink Devil’s-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis)
As I’m sure you’re aware, the flowers of Devil’s-bit scabious are usually somewhere in the lilac, blue-mauve range but, at Lavernock Nature Reserve, there are quite a number of plants with pink flowers. I’ve read this is a natural variation but I don’t know if there is something specific that triggers the alteration in colour. At Lavernock, the pink-flowering plants grow right next to those with lilac flowers, so it’s certainly nothing to do with the soil.
White Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Also at Lavernock Nature Reserve, I recently found Common knapweed with stunning white flowers. This plant, of course, usually has flowers in the pink-purple range. Once again, plants with purple and white flowers were growing right next to each other, which presumably rules out soil composition as a factor. It’s a mystery, but a rather lovely mystery, to be sure!
