08 Wednesday May 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, blue flowers, blue wildflowers, British flora, pink flowers, pink wildflowers, wildflowers
Rain, rain, rain today but I managed to get out for a local bimble without getting too wet.
Due to the risk of rain damaging my good camera, I just took my point-and-click and, as there weren’t many insects braving the weather, the subject today had to be inanimate, in this case wildflowers, for no particular reason in shades of pinks and blues. Can you name them?
06 Monday May 2019
He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.
~ from the poem ‘The Lark Ascending’ by English poet George Meredith, 1881
03 Friday May 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, British insects, Dock bug, Eristalis sp, Green shieldbug, harlequin ladybird, hoverfly, insects on bramble, Nursery web spider, Speckled wood, Syrphus sp, wasp
Ingredients: 1 patch of Bramble, lashings of sunshine, a tablespoon of warmth, a dash of Springtime
Method: Stand and stare
Result: Nursery web spider, Dock bug, hoverfly (Syrphus sp.), Speckled wood butterfly, Green shieldbug, bee species, another hoverfly (Eristalis sp.), Harlequin ladybird, and wasp (Vespula sp.).
02 Thursday May 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Barrage, Cardiff Bay, spring migration, Wheatear
Finally, I spotted a Wheatear on the Cardiff Bay Barrage rocks this morning. Other birders have been seeing them on and off for a month or so now, as they pass through on their way back from wintering in central Africa to their breeding grounds in Britain’s sunlit uplands. I certainly didn’t expect to find one this late in the spring, so I count myself extra lucky to have seen this little beauty today.
01 Wednesday May 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, bird boxes, birding, birds feeding chicks, birdwatching, Blue tit, British birds, Great tit
I spent some time in the churchyard surrounding St Augustine’s Church today, enjoying the wonderful wildness of this lovely place, which is now being managed in a way that enhances its flora and fauna. And it’s working a treat! The grounds are awash with wildflowers and the bird boxes are full of new life.
I admit I did feel a little sorry for the bird parents though. They have to work so hard to feed their chicks – it’s like they’re stuck in a loop: search frantically for food, deliver food, remove pooh, repeat!
30 Tuesday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring
I love it when a plan comes together. I’ve been thinking for a couple of days that it must be getting close to the time that the Dingy skipper butterflies (Erynnis tages) start to appear so, as it was quite warm this morning, I specifically went to Cosmeston, to a sheltered spot where I’ve seen them in the past, to look for my first Dingy of the year. It took a bit of searching, standing and watching for movement, and I was starting to think I wouldn’t find any but then, just like the proverbial buses, two came along at once.
A tip if you’re looking for these – if you see one, don’t take your eyes off it. They are so well camouflaged that they just disappear into the foliage and you can be a foot away and not see them.
29 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, caterpillar, Grangemoor Park, long-tailed tit, tit feeding chicks
How cute is this Long-tailed tit I spotted at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park today? The caterpillar it’s found to feed its chicks is almost as big as it is.
28 Sunday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks
I’m delighted to report that the five Moorhen chicks that hatched in the dipping pond at Cosmeston on 1 April are all still alive and thriving. Their parents have obviously been doing a brilliant job of rearing and protecting them – no easy task when there are so many gulls at Cosmeston and a couple of local Buzzards that are always looking for an easy meal.
26 Friday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, gull nesting among chimney pots, Lesser black-backed gull, nest building, nesting, urban gull nest
So this is what all yesterday’s gull screeching was about!
Mr Lesser black-backed gull was letting the neighbourhood know he had arrived and this was his territory so look out any other gull couples who thought they’d try to muscle in. And today Mr LBB and his mate were getting down to the serious business of nest building amongst the chimney pots across the back lane from my flat – or, at least, Ms LBB was – he just stood watching her do all the work. I do hope the nest goes ahead – what a thrill it would be to watch from my bedroom window as they raise their chicks!
20 Saturday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, plants, spring
It doesn’t matter what name you call it by – Ramsons, Londoner’s lily or Wild garlic – it smells. Some people even find the smell overwhelming but I don’t mind it, and when you see Ramsons flowering en masse, they’re really very lovely.
According to Richard Mabey in my ever-useful Flora Britannica, Ramsons were ‘unmistakable and abundant enough to figure in Old English place names’ and he gives the following examples: ‘Ramsey Island off Pembrokeshire; Ramsbottom, Lancashire; Ramsdell, Hampshire; Ramsholt, Suffolk; Ramshope, Northumberland; and Ramshorn, Staffordshire’.
Here in Penarth, the banks of the stream that flows alongside Alexandra Park are carpeted with Ramsons at this time of year, and their growth is also lush in the wild gardens in Cardiff’s Roath Park and under the trees in Bute Park’s woodland trail. Get sniffing!
