27 Sunday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers
‘For me, wildflowers are joy-giving. They have enriched my life and fed my soul and given beautiful memories to sustain me.’ ~ Lady Bird Johnson letter in National Wildflower Research Center report ‘The First Ten Years: 1983-1993’
16 Wednesday Oct 2019
Determined to make the most of a few hours of sunlight yesterday, I headed along the south Wales coastal path to see what I could find, taking just my small camera as more rain was forecast.
Vegetation along the path had been severely cut back since my last walk that way, which meant that wildflowers were few and far between, though I did find a few plants of Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) still flowering.
And while trying to get some close-ups of the flowers, I had the distinct feeling I was being watched. A tiny, early instar flower bug (not sure which species) was sitting atop one of the flowers and, as if curious, it pranced across from the further flower to the nearer to see what I was doing. Cute!
27 Friday Sep 2019
‘On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like
clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruit were jewels …’
~ Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit
25 Wednesday Sep 2019
Posted in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
Agrimonia eupatoria, Agrimony, Agrimony fruit, Agrimony seed heads, British wildflowers, burred fruit, seed dispersal
In recent weeks, every time I’ve returned from a country-park wander I’ve found my socks and shoes, and my hoodie if I’ve had it tied around my waist, covered in small burrs. These are the seed heads of Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria) and this is their ingenious method of spreading themselves around the countryside.
Just as some plants have seeds that have adapted to being blown in the wind, so others have devised methods of being transported by small (or, in this case, not so small) mammals. As you can see from my photos below, Agrimony fruit have a fringe of hooked bristles around their lower edge. These enable the fruit to become attached to the hides of cows, the wool of sheep, the fur of dogs, the socks of humans, to name just a few examples.
In my case, they mostly end up in the bin, but I’m sure a few will have fallen off during my walk home and, if I notice them on my hoodie, I pull them off as I’m walking along, thus doing my bit to help the plant go forth and multiply!
22 Sunday Sep 2019
Draping and dangling, twisting and tangling, Black bryony’s luscious red berries can be found hanging from fences, winding in hedges, looping over bushes, climbing up trees. One of Autumn’s finest treasures.
14 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants
I heard them before I saw them.
I’d been smelling the ivy flowers all day, as I walked one of my local circuits, though Cosmeston along to Lavernock and back to Penarth along the coastal path. But I hadn’t noticed any open flowers until I heard the loud buzzing coming from the ivy ahead of me on the path. It was alive with various species of bee and fly and hoverfly. And then I spotted what I was looking for – the ginger fluff and black-and-yellow-stripes of Ivy bees (Colletes hederae), my first for 2019.
You can find out more about these handsome creatures in my previous blogs here and here.
13 Friday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, birds, nature, plants
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Reed bunting, umbellifers
This is not the setting I would normally associate with Reed buntings – not a reed to be seen – but this little beauty seemed perfectly at home searching for insects amongst the umbellifers in Cosmeston’s west paddock this afternoon, and the colours made for good camouflage as well.
11 Wednesday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants
Tags
#365DaysWild, autumn fruit, blackberries, bramble, British butterflies, butterfly, Red Admiral, Red admiral on bramble
I think everyone would agree that blackberries, the fruit of the bramble bush, are delicious. I’m not one of those people who risks the almost obligatory scratches to go blackberrying at this time of year – I prefer to leave them to the birds and minibeasts. But, at Cosmeston yesterday, I’d been walking longer than I anticipated and my stomach was rumbling so I thought I’d grab a few to keep me going.
Well, if looks could kill, I would never have made it home because these Red admiral butterflies were absolutely certain the blackberries belonged to them. And they weren’t going to relent, letting me get my hand really close to them without moving a millimetre. One even flew out and ‘buzzed’ me before re-settling on its chosen fruit. I got the message and left them to their feast.
27 Tuesday Aug 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, plants
Fog! I woke to whiteness and the silence fog often seems to induce – perhaps the morning birds were so shocked by this sign of the coming winter that they forgot to sing. It was still early but I stomped along to Cosmeston, thinking migrating birds might have been forced down, unable to see clearly their routes south. I did locate one Spotted flycatcher but what really caught my eye were the beautiful webs, some designed by spiders but others perhaps by different small creatures, all dripping with tiny droplets of moisture.
15 Thursday Aug 2019
Posted in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers
One of my favourite plants, the Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) looks fabulous whether wreathed with its tiny lilac flowers, which insects of all kinds find delicious, or bare and dry and oh-so-sculptural during the winter months.
earthstar 
You must be logged in to post a comment.