• ABOUT
  • BIRDING 2018
  • Birding 2019
  • BLOG POSTS
  • Butterflies 2018
  • Resources

earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Category Archives: spring

First hoverfly

25 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alexanders, British hoverflies, Chequered hoverfly, first hoverfly of year, hoverfly, Melanostoma scalare

Yesterday’s exercise walk was a long meander around local paths looking for wildflowers in bloom (those pictures will be coming on Sunday), and in the process I spotted my first hoverfly of the year, this tiny Chequered hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare), nectaring on Alexanders. With temperatures forecast to rise and the prospect of some sunshine over the coming days, I’m hoping for more … and maybe even my first butterfly of the year. Fingers crossed!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Snowdrops, native or not

21 Sunday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, spring, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

British wildflowers, naturalised wildflowers, non-native British wildflowers, Snowdrops, spring flowers

I thought the Snowdrop was a native British wildflower but it seems not.

210221 snowdrops (1)

This is from the publication Wonderland (by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss):

Though they were once considered native, botanists now believe they were brought here from continental Europe to adorn Elizabethan gardens.
The first definite record in the wild dates from the 1770s, when they were discovered in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. If these showy flowers were truly native before then, it is hard to imagine them being overlooked.

210221 snowdrops (2)
210221 snowdrops (3)
210221 snowdrops (4)
210221 snowdrops (5)

I’m now seeing plenty of Snowdrops when I’m out and about on my exercise walks, though I’m not sure whether they’re naturalised non-natives or have been planted along the roadsides by green-fingered locals. There are several different varieties of Snowdrop, and I’ve also seen quite a lot of double-flowered varieties amongst the more common types. The doubles (pictured on the right above) are probably Galanthus nivalis Flore Pleno, according to the identification crib sheet on the BSBI website, which, if you’re interested, also gives clear details of how to ID the single-flowered varieties.

210221 snowdrops (6)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

First Blackthorn blossom

16 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in spring, trees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blackthorn, Blackthorn blossom, Spring blossom, spring is coming

My first sighting of Blackthorn blossom for 2021 has happened a bit later than last year – is that because the flowers are later or my lack of attention? I can’t tell but whichever, it’s another sign that spring is on its way!

210213 blackthorn

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

136/366 Predation

15 Friday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bird's egg, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, Blackbird's egg, British birds

200515 blackbird egg

This is the one that didn’t make it. It’s a Blackbird’s egg, I think, and it looks like a hole’s been pecked in it, probably by another bird, like a Magpie or a Crow. It’s always a little sad to see things like this but it’s just the way the natural world works.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

134/366 The Swannee river

13 Wednesday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, cygnet, Mute swan, swan, swan with cygnets

When I spotted a pair of Mute swans and their six cygnets on an inlet of the River Ely on yesterday’s exercise walk, the old song ‘Way down upon the Swannee River’ immediately came to mind. The song has nothing to do with swans, of course (it’s about an African slave longing for ‘de old plantation’), and most of you are probably too young to even remember the tune – I think it was just the combination of swans and river that made it pop into my brain. But enough of the strange workings of my mind during lockdown…. Isn’t this little family just gorgeous?!

200513 swan and cygnets (2)200513 swan and cygnets (3)200513 swan and cygnets (4)200513 swan and cygnets

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

131/366 New bloomers

10 Sunday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bittersweet nightshade, British wildflowers, Common milkwort, Cut-Leaved crane’s-bill, Flax, Goat's-beard, Spring colour, Wood avens

Here are this week’s newly flowering wildflowers …

200510 bittersweet nightshade

Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), also known as Woody nightshade and Deadly nightshade, though my Flora Britannica assures me this is actually one of the less poisonous members of the nightshade family.

200510 cut-leaved crane's-bill

Cut-leaved crane’s-bill (Geranium dissectum), one of the many lovely members of the extended Geranium family.

200510 flax

Flax (Linum usitatissimum), a small delicate plant, with beautiful pale blue flowers. This is rather different from the plant I, as a New Zealander, usually associate with this name – see my September 2018 post Flax.

200510 goat's-beard

Goat’s-beard (Tragopogon pratensis). As well as producing these glorious large sunny flowers, this wildflower, also known as Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon, has the most wonderful seedheads.

200510 wood avens

Wood avens (Geum urbanum) – you may know this wildflower by its alternate name of Herb Bennet.

200510 milkwort

Common milkwort (Polygala vulgaris). Discovered during my walk to Lavernock Nature Reserve earlier this week, this was the first time I’d seen this pretty little plant, though it’s very small and was almost hidden amongst the other wildflowers and grasses so it may be that I had simply overlooked it on previous visits.

One theory behind its common name is that the flowers of milkwort are shaped like udders and so medieval herbalists, following the ‘signature’ belief (that body parts can be treated by plants that resemble them), used to prescribe this plant to nursing mothers to increase their milk flow.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

130/366 Spiderlings

09 Saturday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spiders, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Araneus diadematus, British spiders, Garden spider, Garden spider babies, spiderlings, spiders

At first sight, from several feet away, I thought this splodge on the side of a building was a dollop of bird poo … but then I noticed it was moving. So, of course, I immediately got out my camera and peered closer.

200509 garden spiderlings (1)

They were spider babies, hundreds of them, of the species Araneus diadematus, commonly known as Garden spiders. Both as spiderlings and as adults, these are completely harmless, though, as so often happens, several of the trashy daily newspapers have, in the past, vilified these bunches of babies with such headlines as ‘Woman’s horror as hundreds of tiny yellow spiders erupt from a nest in her back garden’ and ‘Millions of “exploding” yellow baby spiders invade Britain’.

200509 garden spiderlings (2)

When they’ve grown to adult size, these little cuties will look like those I photographed for my November 2017 blog post Wearing a diadem. You can read more about the Garden spider on the British Arachnological Society’s website.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

126/366 The Lady of the Woods

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Orange-tip 2nd instar, Orange-tip butterfly, Orange-tip egg

I know I already posted about seeing my first Orange-tip butterfly of the year (The ostentatious Orange-tip, 15 April) but, for those not familiar with this lovely springtime butterfly, I thought it might be useful to see a bit more detail. So, here is a typical male Orange-tip, from the top and the side. The speckling on the lower wings looks green but that’s an optical illusion – the colours are actually yellow and black.

200505 orange-tip male (1)
200505 orange-tip male (2)

And here’s a female from both angles. If you only see her from the top, you might confuse her with one of the other white butterflies, though the dark patches are different in all the whites, and the Orange-tip also has a distinctive wing shape.

200505 orange-tip female (1)
200505 orange-tip female (2)

I managed to find several eggs during a recent walk – the newly laid eggs are white but turn orange very quickly. You’ll find them on the caterpillar food plants: Cuckooflower, Garlic mustard and Honesty are three wildflowers this butterfly favours. And, for the first time ever, I found a caterpillar. This is a 2nd instar (i.e. stage) – the larvae proceed through 5 instars, progressively growing larger, until they are ready to pupate.

200505 orange-tip egg
200505 orange-tip larva 2nd instar

You might be wondering why I gave this post the title of ‘the Lady of the Woods’. Well, according to Peter Eeles’s superb publication Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies (every home should have one!), this is the name given to the Orange-tip by Benjamin Wilkes in his Twelve New Designs of English Butterflies, published in 1742.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

125/366 Bonding

04 Monday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, spring

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, gulls mating, Lesser black-backed gull

During the past couple of weeks, it’s been fascinating to watch two Lesser black-backed gulls – presumably, the same two who nested amongst a group of neighbouring chimney pots last year – renewing their pair bonds and practising their seduction techniques. The process goes a bit like this …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (1)

They circle each other, beaks thrust towards the sky in unison, and there’s some low bird-speak (as opposed to gull shrieking) …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (2)

One bird (the female, I think) begs the other for food, as if it is a chick, and the second bird regurgitates a niblet of food …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (3)

There’s more circling and beak thrusting and chatter …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (4)

Finally, the males jumps on the back of the female, though it takes them a couple of minutes to spread their wings, tails, feathers to reach the right angle to achieve copulation …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (5)

And this happens more than once, the male remaining on the female’s back until they’ve copulated three times during this one session …

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (6)

Once finished, he jumps off, she puts her head down and waggles her rear end, and there is more low chatter, and a little beak bumping, before they both fly off.

200504 lesser black-backed gulls (7)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

124/366 Ragged robin

03 Sunday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Bee-fly, British wildflowers, Grangemoor Park, Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged robin, Silene flos-cuculi, Spring colour, spring flowers

At Grangemoor Park on Friday, I spotted my first flowering Ragged robin for the year.

200503 ragged robin (1)

This gorgeous wildflower was formerly known as Lychnis flos-cuculi, but is now Silene flos-cuculi – from a scientific article I browsed, this seems a complicated story of almost constant reclassification of the species! You will still see both names used in books and on line, which is why I’ve mentioned both here.

200503 ragged robin (2)

According to a couple of books I discovered on the ‘language of flowers’, Ragged robin’s symbolic meaning is ‘wit’, and it is dedicated to Saint Barnabas. The ever-informative First Nature website says:

Lychnis, the genus name, comes from the Greek noun lychnos, meaning lamp; it refers to the use of a plant in this genus as the wick of an oil lamp. The specific epithet flos-cuculi means ‘flower of the cuckoo’ and was probably chosen because the first flowers of Ragged Robin appear just as the first cuckoos are being heard (in Britain and Ireland at least) in May.

200503 ragged robin (3)

A special moment: to try to stop it swaying in the breeze so I could get a sharp photo, I was holding one of the blooms when a bee-fly decided to zoom in for a feed of nectar. That super long proboscis comes in handy for long narrow flowers like these.

200503 ragged robin (4)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

View Full Profile →

Follow earthstar on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent blog posts

  • Leaf mines: Chromatomyia scolopendri March 1, 2021
  • Wild blooms February 28, 2021
  • Mossy gravestone February 27, 2021
  • Nipplewort Rust February 26, 2021
  • First hoverfly February 25, 2021

From the archives

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

COPYRIGHT

Unless otherwise acknowledged, the text and photographs on this blog are my own and are subject to international copyright. Nothing may be downloaded or copied without my permission.

Click on the category

'Dedicated Naturalist' Project 365DaysWildin2019 amphibian animals autumn birds coastal fauna flowers fungi geology insects ladybird leaves lichen mammal molluscs nature nature photography parks plants reptiles seaside seasons spiders spring trees walks weather wildflowers winter

Fellow Earth Stars!

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: