28 Sunday Mar 2021
Have you been watching the greening? The buds on the trees growing ever fatter? Swelling to the point where they burst with spring goodness?
This year I’ve been paying more attention to this incredible process. These are some images of Hawthorn from the last couple of weeks.
24 Wednesday Mar 2021
Tags
bird migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, spring migration, Wheatear
Monday was warm and sunny, at last – sunny days have been few and far between so far this month – so I decided to walk a circuit of Cardiff Bay, hoping this might be the day I would see my first Wheatear of the year.
I was already on the Barrage, bins out and scanning, when I got a message from a fellow birder that a Wheatear had just been reported. As I checked further along the Barrage, I could see someone, off their bike, camera with long lens in hand – that had to be where it was.
It only took a few minutes to reach Tate, one of our star local birders, whose keen eyes had found this stunning male Wheatear. We’re lucky that these birds sometimes stop off for an insect break on the Barrage rocks before continuing their migration flight to their breeding grounds further north. Such a treat to see!
22 Monday Mar 2021
At this time of year the ornamental cherry tree outside my flat is awash with blossom, of a warm white shade flushed with the merest tinge of pink.
It looks glorious, especially on sunny days, and, at a time when there are few flowers in bloom, it’s a magnet for newly emerging, hungry insects of the flying kind.
Yesterday, as well as a few Honey bees, I spotted half a dozen, all Buff-tailed, bumblebees doddering from one flower to the next, before lurching haphazardly to the next branch, dislodging the delicate petals as they passed.
21 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Common dog-violet, dog violets, Early dog-violet, Spring colour, Sweet violet, Viola odorata, Viola odorata var. dumetorum, Viola reichenbachiana, Viola riviniana, violets, white Sweet violet
The wildflower hour challenge this week was to ‘find a violet in bloom and work out which one it is’. Now, you might think that’s an easy task but, once you learn – as I did – that there are five subspecies of Sweet violet alone, you could easily decide – as I almost did – that this was a challenge too far. But I persevered, and found three different species (and two subspecies of one).
Let’s start with Sweet violet, and the two subspecies I Iocated, the standard purple violet with the glorious scent, Viola odorata var. odorata, and one of the two white subspecies, Viola odorata var. dumetorum. As well as its glorious smell, the Sweet violet can most easily be identified by the rounded sepals that lay flat against the flower (if the sepals were angled back towards the stem, you’d have a Hairy violet – I didn’t find any of those this week). And I’ve not yet seen the second variation of the white violet, Viola odorata var. imberbis (which doesn’t have a ‘beard’, the hairs inside the flower).
I managed to find both the dog-violets (the word ‘dog’ in this case indicating there is no scent; nothing to do with the domestic pet!). These are Common dog-violet (Viola riviniana) (photos on the left below) and Early dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana) (photos on the right). These two can be difficult to tell apart sometimes but, though both dog-violets have pointy sepals, the Common dog’s sepals are usually bigger, with tops (the sepal appendages) that are more square, and often notched or scalloped. Also, the spurs at the back of the flowers are mostly stouter and notched at the end on the Common dog, and the veins inside its flowers are longer and multi-branching.
You can find Wildflower hour on Twitter by clicking this link, and their website is here. They’re probably on Facebook too but I no longer use FB. If you’re on Twitter, there are many excellent botanists’ accounts to follow but one I definitely recommend is Moira O’Donnell (@nervousbotanist), who often shares easy-to-follow species crib sheets, one of which I have drawn on for this post.
18 Thursday Mar 2021
Tags
7-spot ladybird, British ladybirds, Coccinella septempunctata, Seven-spot ladybird, Spring colour
A tiny spot of red caught my eye, and then, close by, another – my first ladybirds of the year, both Seven-spot ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata).
If you’re lucky, you may have had these little beauties hibernating in your garden shed but, in this case, these two are countryside dwellers so have probably spent the winter inside a plant stem, or perhaps tucked securely within the dense branches of ivy, or maybe in a deep crack in tree bark. A few sunny days and warmer overnight temperatures will have triggered their emergence from hibernation, and produced another spring treat for me to enjoy!
17 Wednesday Mar 2021
Though yesterday’s weren’t my first butterfly sightings of the year (I’ve seen two different species fly rapidly past in recent weeks but haven’t managed photos), they were simply splendid. A walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park produced five (!) Brimstones and, though most were patrolling their chosen territories at speed, I waited patiently for one to stop for a rest and managed to get close enough to get some good images. I can’t tell you how truly wonderful it feels to be sharing my air space with butterflies again. They are such magical creatures!
14 Sunday Mar 2021
Tags
birding, birds' nest, birdwatching, British birds, long-tailed tit, Long-tailed tit nest, Long-tailed tit nest building, nest building
I was enchanted, during this morning’s local meander, to spot a pair of Long-tailed tits nest building – it seemed so appropriate for Mother’s Day, though in this case it may be a few weeks before the female bird becomes a mum.
The nest was almost totally hidden inside a tangle of bramble branches and, once the bramble leaves grow, will be completely obscured.
And the nest itself was only about one third built, so I’ve included, below right, a photo of a Long-tailed tit nest that I was shown a couple of years ago, after its occupants had fledged and the bush containing the nest had been chopped down. Of course, I’ll be heading back to this location to follow progress from a suitable distance.
09 Tuesday Mar 2021
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve, Coot, coots fighting
Coots don’t do mediation. If a pair likes the look of or has already staked a claim to a particular nesting place, then they’ll fight to retain / defend that position.
Today I watched these two pairs battling over the pond in Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve.
It’s actually quite a large pond, which should be big enough for both pairs, but these Coots obviously thought otherwise.
And they certainly don’t pull any punches!
07 Sunday Mar 2021
Tags
Alder, Alder catkins, Alder cones, Alnus glutinosa, British trees, catkins, female Alder flowers, male Alder flowers
I’m off on a flower tangent this week. With no new wildflowers to add to last week’s collection and because I’ve been seeing lots of nice birds (especially Siskin) in Alder trees this week, I thought I’d focus on Alder for my Sunday flower post.
As the Alder (Alnus glutinosa) is monoecious, you can find both the male and female flowers on the same tree. I’ve frequently noticed the male flowers (commonly known as catkins), as they’re the most obvious and are very similar to Hazel catkins. Give them a flick at this time of year and you’re sure to see a shower of yellow ‘dust’ released into the air: that’s the pollen.
However, I hadn’t really paid any attention to the female flowers before and, I admit, I hadn’t really made the connection between the female flowers and the little woody cones they grow in to once fertilised. The female flowers are much smaller and found in little bunches on the stem, usually above the male catkins.
Interestingly, the Woodland Trust website says that ‘The green dye from the flowers was used to colour and camouflage the clothes of outlaws like Robin Hood, and was thought to also colour the clothes of fairies.’ And, of course, in the winter months the seeds from the cones provide essential nourishment to the Siskin, the Goldfinch and the Redpoll. What a bountiful tree the Alder is!
25 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in spring
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!
earthstar 
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