197/366 A Starling family

15 Wednesday Jul 2020

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, juvenile birds, juvenile Starling, starling

As I was walking down a narrow country lane last Sunday, I was delighted to come across this family of Starlings – Mum, Dad and several juveniles – perched in the tops of the hedgerow that bordered the lane.

200715 starling (1)

Young birds are often more trusting than adults but, in this case, the whole family was content to sit and chatter and poke about in the bushes, so I managed to get a few reasonable photos.

200715 starling (2)

To me, juvenile Starlings are a bit like the proverbial ugly duckling – they start out quite plain but develop into exceedingly beautiful birds. As you can see, these young ones are just beginning to get their magnificently iridescent adult plumage.

200715 starling (3)

196/366 First Brown argus of 2020

14 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

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Tags

British butterflies, Brown argus, butterfly, butterflying, Grangemoor Park

By this date last year, I had managed to find Brown argus butterflies at two different local sites (and one of those was the first Cardiff record in eight years). This year I only spotted my first Brown argus last Saturday, almost two months later than last year. The Polyommatinae family (that’s the blues and arguses) are not faring well in my part of south Wales this year, which is a great shame, as they are all gorgeous little butterflies.

200714 brown argus (1)

If you’re having trouble telling a Brown argus from a Common blue female, my blog Flying on the wings of Confusion, July 2018, has ID pointers and photos that should help.

200714 brown argus (2)

195/366 An inkcap in the grass

13 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

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British fungi, fungi in grass, inkcap, mushroom

One thing about the rain, it brings out the fungi.

200713 inkcap (2)

This might be a Goldenhaired inkcap (Parasola auricoma), which can often be found growing on bark chips in gardens, or it could be a Pleated inkcap (Parasola plicatilis), which mostly grow in short grass, or it might also be a Bald inkcap (Parasola Leiocephala), which likes short grass and woodland edges. Though my specimen looks like it’s surrounded by grass, there were twigs, small branches and pieces of bark in amongst the grass, and woodland trees nearby, so the habitat doesn’t aid with identification.

200713 inkcap (1)

As I don’t own a microscope and don’t want to get in to the often complicated process of identifying fungi, I simply enjoyed seeing this little surprise that had popped up along my path.

194/366 Watching, waiting

12 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British orchids, Broad-leaved helleborine, Grangemoor Park, native orchids

During my lockdown meanders around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, I’ve been keeping an eye on these Broad-leaved helleborines, watching and waiting for them to bloom. Though I’d only found them in one location in previous years, this year I’ve spotted them in three different places around the park.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 17 june (2)

Here they are on 17 June, looking healthy, with lots of lush foliage.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 17 june (1)

Just over a week later, on 25 June, flower spikes have developed well on a couple of plants, so I’m hopeful of a good display.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 25 june (1)

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 25 june (2)

I don’t manage to get back this way until 11 July, but I’m full of expectation of a mass of blooms. Unfortunately, though we’ve had plenty of rain, a couple of plants look brown and slightly withered (as they’re adjacent to a well-used footpath, I wonder if passing dogs might have urinated on them). A couple of other plants look as if they’ve been trampled.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 11 july (1)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Luckily, I have found two plants with spikes intact and a couple of flowers open on each. Such pretty little things.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

193/366 Moth macro

11 Saturday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British moths, macro photography, moth, Silver Y, Silver Y moth

We’ve had cooler, greyer, wetter weather in recent days, which isn’t so good for seeing hosts of butterflies and other insects flying around the wildflowers but, if you can find them, it does slow those insects down a bit making macro photography a little easier … sometimes. A slow, quiet, stealthy approach is still required as, to take macro photos with my Olympus camera, I need to get as close as an inch to my subject. Mostly, the insects fly or scuttle off, but this stunning Silver Y moth was a rather lovely exception to my usual failures.

200711 Silver Y moth

192/366 Damsels and dragons

10 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

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Blue-tailed damselfly, British damselflies, British dragonflies, Broad-bodied Chaser, Common blue damselfly, Common Darter, Emperor dragonfly

Last summer was so hot and dry that many of the local ponds dried up completely, which may be why I’m not seeing as many damselflies and dragonflies as I have in previous years – perhaps their larvae didn’t survive that dry period. Here are a few I have seen in recent weeks …

Blue-tailed damselfly: though the females come in several colour forms, both they and the males, like this one, have the blue spot on their lower abdomen, which is how they got their name.

Common blue damselflies, here an immature female, a male and, below, a pair in classic mating pose.

200710 common blues mating 200710 broad-bodied chaser

And the dragons: a glowing female Broad-bodied chaser

200710 common darter

I’ve seen my first two Common darters in recent days, which is late, as they can appear as early as May.

200710 emperor female ovipositing

A female Emperor laying her eggs (ovipositing) under the vegetation of a local pond. Let’s hope that pond retains enough water this year for her offspring to survive the winter months.

191/366 Snail sex

09 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in molluscs, nature

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British snails, snail love dart, snail reproduction, snail sex, snails

I’ve noticed snails cwtched up together many times in the past but I’d never observed the nitty gritty of what they were actually doing until I saw this pair. Because they’d pulled slightly apart, it was possible to see their ‘apparatus’ in action.

200709 mating snails (1)

And what about the tiny white spike on the snail at left? Is that one of the love darts that snails stab their mates with? I don’t know enough about snails to be sure but, for more on this point, you can read about the sharp end of snail sex on the National Geographic website here.

200709 mating snails (2)

190/366 For the love of thistles

08 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

British insects, Cirsium arvense, Creeping thistle, insects on thistles, thistle

Many people would consider the thistle – any thistle, all thistles – to be a weed but one look at these photos will show just what a diverse range of insects find the humble thistle an essential source of food. From flies and hoverflies, bees and wasps, to beetles and butterflies, the Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense) is a favourite of them all. And when the flowers are finished, it will be the turn of the birds to find nourishment in the thistle seeds. What an amazing wildflower this is!

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189/366 Keepers of the gate

07 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus

It’s a week since I spotted my first Gatekeepers of the year and, in the past seven days, I’ve seen them in several of my local walking places, though so far only males .

200707 gatekeeper (1)

They grab the wandering eye, as their bright orange pops from the vibrant green of the hedgerows and woodland rides, and in the long grass of fence lines and the gates that divide them.

200707 gatekeeper (2)

You can read more about these gorgeous butterflies in my previous blogs The Gatekeeper, July 2018, and Sexing Gatekeepers, July 2019.

200707 gatekeeper (3)

188/366 Arachnophilia

06 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spiders

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British spiders, Misumena vatia, Nursery web spider, Paidiscura pallens, Pisaura mirabilis, sputnik-shaped egg sac, White crab spider

I’m not a huge spider fan but, as I’ve been spying a few during recent meanders, I thought I should show them a little love, so …

200706 1 crab spider

White crab spiders (Misumena vatia) like this one are usually very good at camouflaging themselves, lurking on white or pale-coloured flowers, but this little one was being bold, and so made for a good subject for a photo.

200706 2 spider and eggs

A spot of leaf-turning revealed several Paidiscura pallens spiders and their weirdly shaped egg sacs. You can read more about these tiny creatures in my previous blog The sputnik spider, July 2017.

200706 3 spider and eggs

One of the meadows where I walk has a lot of long grass, some of which is now woven together by the silken threads of Nursery web spiders (Pisaura mirabilis). These spiders don’t spin webs to catch food; instead, their webs are constructed to keep their spiderlings safe while they grow in to adults.

The adult spiders are a pale brown in colour, with a pattern of darker brown and black stripes running vertically along their bodies.

200706 6 spider and eggs

The Wildlife Trust website has this fascinating information about Nursery web spiders:
‘Mating is a dangerous game for male Nursery web spiders, so they present a gift of food to the female while laying perfectly still and pretending to be dead. When the female investigates the food, the male will suddenly jump up and mate with her.’