Category Archives: nature

Autumn Lady’s-tresses

01 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in flowers, nature, wildflowers

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On the first calendar day of autumn it seems entirely appropriate to showcase Britain’s tiny autumnal orchid with the perfectly suited name of Autumn Lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis).

Growing up to 20cms (7.8ins) tall but often much smaller, these little beauties can be hard to spot – last week I couldn’t find them at Cosmeston (a friend spotted the first-ever sighting of them there recently) though I managed to spot these at Aberthaw Nature Reserve last Sunday. They are mostly coastal plants because they prefer sandy dunes or calcareous grasslands. In a good year, they can grow in colonies of hundreds, as thickly as grass, often in seaside suburban lawns.

It’s easy to see where the epithet spiralis comes from: the flowers spiral around the stem as they grow, though you might not guess these were orchids at all until you took a close look at the flowers. Their orchid shape is distinctive but the hairiness of the pure white petals seems a little incongruous. I presume the common name of Lady’s tresses comes from a resemblance to spiralling ringlets.

Bird’s-nests with eggs!

31 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in fungi, nature

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How cool are these?

170831 Common bird's-nest fungus (1)

Of course, you’ve guessed it – I’m not talking about eggs in the nests of birds with feathers: these are fungi, but one of the most amazing types of fungi I know. And this was the first time I’d seen them with eggs in the nests and, indeed, it was the first time I’d seen them before the eggs were exposed. And there must have been hundreds of them, all growing along the planks of wood around a raised garden bed.

170831 Common bird's-nest fungus (3)170831 Common bird's-nest fungus (2)

This is the Common bird’s-nest fungus (Crucibulum laeve) and I think you can see where it got its common name. It starts off looking like small blobs of yellowy orange fur, then the furry membrane falls off to reveal its inner cupcake-shaped fruiting body and that’s where the eggs sit. Of course, they’re not eggs at all: the scientific name for them is peridioles. They’re effectively capsules full of spores that are activated when rain drops hit them, causing them to ‘leave the nest’ and begin the germination process. (If you’re as fascinated by these as I am, you can read more here.)

170831 Common bird's-nest fungus (5)170831 Common bird's-nest fungus (4)

What’s on the teasel, 2

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

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The pretty lilac of teasel flower is beginning to fade now but the mini beasts have certainly been enjoying its nectar. In my local parks and reserves it’s a favourite with the 6-spot Burnet moths and with bees of all species. And not long after those pretty little flowers fade away, the seeds will begin to form and grow, and provide food for the birds, particular the dapper little goldfinch, during the winter months. I’ll try to catch photos of them on the teasels in a couple of months’ time.

A selection of Grass-veneers

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in insects, nature

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If you have a tendency, as I do, to wander through grassy meadows, you may have noticed small pale-looking flying creatures that are disturbed by your passing. They flit up and disappear again so quickly – their wings gathered tightly to their sides and often perched head-down on a grass stem – that they can be very hard to spot, and you may not, as I initially didn’t, realise that they’re moths. There are 39 species of Crambinae (the Grass moth family) in Britain – so far I’ve only managed to photograph these five.

Agriphila straminella Straw Grass-veneer (left) and Agriphila tristella Common grass-veneer (right)

Chrysoteuchia culmella Garden Grass-veneer

Crambus lathoniellus Hook-streak Grass-veneer

Crambus pascuella Inlaid grass-veneer

I am extremely grateful to my friends from the South Wales Butterfly Conservation Group on Facebook for their help in identifying these moths.

Why I bought bins

28 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in birds, nature

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I have always been a bird lover but my birding enjoyment has increased immeasurably since I finally bought myself a pair of binoculars. (I’d previously relied on using the 300mm lens on my camera to bring me closer to distant birds but I now realise how utterly inadequate that was.) From yesterday’s trip to Gileston and Aberthaw with my bird club, here’s why buying bins has been brilliant …

170828a Goldfinches

I could see these Goldfinches with the naked eye and the camera got a reasonable, though not crisp shot.

170828b Yellowhammer

This was my first sighting of a Yellowhammer this year. You can perhaps just make out a yellow dot perched on top of the hedge.

170828c Sparrowhawk

You’ll have to take my word for this one – there’s a Sparrowhawk in this photo. It was well camouflaged but I could just see it with my bins.

170828e Turnstone Dunlin Ringer plover

There were lots of waders foraging on the beach: Turnstones, Dunlins and cute little Ringed plovers. Just specks through the camera, though.

170828f Rock pipit

This one’s a little easier. Spot the Rock pipit.

170828g Little egrets

Their bright Persil whiteness makes these two Little egrets much easier to see but with the bins I could almost see what they were catching for lunch!

Dragons at Lavernock

27 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by in insects, nature, parks

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There were some cracking dragonflies scooting around the pond at Lavernock Nature Reserve yesterday.

Both the male and the female Common darters posed very obligingly for me.

170827 Emperor male

The male Emperor kept busy patrolling the pond and indulging in occasional rapid trysts with a female. Judging by his tattered wings, he’s notched up quite a few trysts in recent days / weeks. He only stopped once, and then very briefly, so this photo doesn’t really do him justice.

170827 Emperor female

The female Emperor was then kept busy laying eggs at various spots all around the pond edges. A woman’s work is never done!

170827 Broad-bodied chaser male

The star of the show was this gorgeous male Broad-bodied chaser. Apparently, this is very late in the season for them, and he was looking pristine, so perhaps he had only recently hatched. Whatever his story, he was a stunning sight.

Wildflowers that aren’t

25 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by in flowers, insects, nature, parks, wildflowers

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170825 flowers & insects (1)

I’m in two minds about the current trend amongst city councils to plant beds of wildflowers in local parks. I’m told that the seed mixes are often imported from Europe because they’re cheaper, so they’re not necessarily flower species that would grow naturally in the local area. It seems a token gesture on the part of councils rather than any kind of commitment to the environment. On the other hand, I can’t help but enjoy the colourful flowers, and the insects also seem to benefit from them. What do you think?

Oak galls: marbles and apples

24 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in insects, nature, trees

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Though there are many more galls to be found on oak trees than the six I have covered in this and my previous two posts (knoppers and artichokes, and currants and spangles), I’ll make this the last lot for now. Otherwise, it might be just too galling for words!

170824 Andricus kollari Oak Marble gall (1)

So, to finish off this mini series, today we have Marble and Apple galls. Let’s start with the Marble galls and another tiny wasp, Andricus kollari, which lays its eggs on the twigs of any species of oak. This causes small perfectly round spheres to develop on these twigs. The spheres start off green but brown with age and will often remain on the twigs for a year or more. You can tell that the wasp has fled its larval home when you see tiny holes in the sphere. And although these do look just like brown marbles, I’m not sure you could use them to play the once-popular childhood game – they’re a little too light to shoot with.

And so to Oak apples. With their basic green colour and pink tinges, these do resemble immature apples but their surface texture and spongy feel are all wrong. The wasp Biorhiza pallida is the culprit this time, and these ‘apples’ contain several larvae, not just one.

Like many such wasps, both the Marble gall wasp and the Apple gall wasp have a sexual and an agamic (asexual) reproduction cycle. I have not seen the sexual galls produced by Andricus kollari which, interestingly, are produced only on Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) – the Marble galls are produced by the agamic (all female, no mating required) generation. Oak apple galls are produced by the sexual generation of Biorhiza pallida: the agamic generation lay their eggs on the roots of oak trees, so I haven’t seen those yet either.

170824 Biorhiza pallida Oak apple gall (1)

I find the whole concept of two different types of reproduction and, indeed, the way these wasps can cause such galls to form very intriguing!

Oak galls: knoppers and artichokes

23 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in insects, nature, trees

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Following quickly on from yesterday’s oak galls, part 1, we have oak attack, part 2, a sorry tale of knoppers and artichokes – and, no, you can’t eat them!

First the knoppers, which are caused by Andriscus quercuscalicis, a wasp with chemical weapons. The wasp lays its eggs in buds on oak trees and the larvae, when they hatch, secrete a chemical that causes the developing acorn to distort into a knobbly lump, thus forming a home for themselves. The galls are structurally interesting but not so good for the oak tree, as the acorn is no longer a viable seed for the tree and I presume the knopper gall also makes the acorn unsuitable as food for wildlife as well. Apparently, this wasp only arrived in Britain in the 1960s but its spread has been rapid, with the galls now found throughout Wales and England and in southern Scotland, though only on the Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur).

Artichoke galls – also known as hop galls due to their resemblance to flower of the hop plant – are also the result of chemical distortion by a wasp. This time it’s Andricus foecundatrix that does the damage. Using its sharp ovipositor, it lays its eggs in the leaf buds of both the Pedunculate oak and the Sessile oak (Quercus petraea). Like yesterday’s Spangle-causing wasp, Andricus foecundatrix also has both a sexual and an asexual generation. The asexual wasp hatches from her artichoke home in the springtime and lays her eggs in oak catkins, causing a small oval-shaped gall to develop – I don’t yet have any photos of these galls but you can see images here.