30 Sunday Mar 2025
People from a planet without flowers would think we must be
mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.
~ Iris Murdoch, from the novel A Fairly Honourable Defeat, Vintage, 1970
Mad as a hatter, me, as the Spring wildflowers begin to bloom. I hope you’re enjoying them too!
23 Sunday Mar 2025
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Hairy violet, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Viola hirta, violet species, violets
As I wrote in last Sunday’s post, it’s violet time, and I’ve since realised that I’ve not previously blogged about one violet species I see very often, the Hairy violet (Viola hirta).
This species and the Sweet violet (Viola odorata) are the only two to have rounded sepals, which narrows down the possibilities for identification purposes. Also, the sepal appendages are different: in Sweet violet, these are angled away from the flower’s stem, while the sepal appendages of the Hairy violet are pressed towards the stem.
Another distinguishing feature is the petal colour: the petals of the Hairy violet are paler, with a lilac hue, whereas those of the Sweet violet are a deep purple (unless they’re the white-coloured sub-species, of course).
The two violet species also grow in different environments. Sweet violets prefer the edges of woodland rides, and churchyards, and roadside verges, while Hairy violets are mostly found on dry calcareous grasslands, like those found in two of the fields at my local country park, Cosmeston Lakes, which is where I took these photos earlier today.
22 Saturday Mar 2025
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Can you hear it?
I can’t remember where I read it but I’m fairly sure the Wren has one of the loudest voices of any birds in Britain, though even its song is eclipsed by the boom of the Bittern, which can be heard around 2 miles away. At this time of year, male Wrens in particular sing regularly and loudly, to advertise themselves and their territories in order to attract any available females. The Wren in my photo has a very nice seaside territory amongst the large boulders of Cardiff Bay’s outer Barrage breakwater – if I were a female Wren, I’d certainly be interested. If you’re not familiar with the song of the Wren, you can hear it on the RSPB website.
21 Friday Mar 2025
Tags
Bombus hypnorum, Bombus terrestris, Brimstone, British butterflies, Buff-tailed bumblebee, butterflies feeding on willow flowers, insects feeding on willow flowers, insects on willow, Small tortoiseshell, Tree bumblebee, willow
This is your occasional reminder, if you are interested in spotting flying insects, that it is a very good idea at this time of year, when the various willows (Salix species) are coming in to flower, to spend a little staring at these trees. That is partly how I came to find so many butterflies yesterday. Several of the Brimstones I saw, in particular the two females that were feeding up prior to egg-laying, and the beautiful Small tortoiseshell were all found initially on willow flowers.
The fluffy yellow flowers were also providing much needed sustenance for a variety of flies, for honey bees and hoverflies. Due to their larger size, I was also able to see at least two species of bumblebee, Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) (left below) and Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) (below right).
20 Thursday Mar 2025
Tags
Brimstone, British butterflies, butterfly, Comma, female Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small tortoiseshell
With a high temperature of 18º Celsius, the warmest day of the year so far, and lashings of sunshine, butterflies appeared as if by magic during this morning’s five-mile walk. In total, I spotted 13 butterflies of four species today, and it was simply enchanting. What better way to celebrate the vernal equinox than with a profusion of butterflies!
Brimstones were the most abundant, with nine seen. This gorgeous creature was my first female Brimstone of the year.
There were two Commas. One stayed high in the trees but this beauty was more obliging.
This Red admiral was looking quite tatty after surviving the long cold winter.
I was delighted to see this Small tortoiseshell, as they were very scarce here last year. At first, it was feeding high in a willow but my patience paid off when it came gliding down to perch on a nearby Bramble bush.
16 Sunday Mar 2025
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Sweet violet, Viola odorata, Viola odorata var. dumetorum, violet, white Sweet violet
It’s violet time and, though I’ve blogged about violets several times before, I simply can’t resist sharing once again a photo of what for me are the prettiest of the violets, the white variations. The only white-coloured violets are Sweet violets (Viola odorata) and there are two white subspecies, Viola odorata var. dumetorum and Viola odorata var. imberbis. The violets in my photograph are the former, and I only know of two places locally where these grow. The latter variation doesn’t have a ‘beard’ (the tiny hairs within the flower), and I’ve still not found any of those.
15 Saturday Mar 2025
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For no particular reason I am feeling the need for some good cheer today, and what better little bird to provide that cheery feeling than a cute wee Robin with its bouncy melody. Happy Saturday, everyone!
12 Wednesday Mar 2025
It’s that time of year when birds quarrel frequently, over territories, over females, over nest sites, and Coots are the masters of quarrelling.
First, their heads go down and their wings go up, presumably to make their profile look larger and more threatening to the opposition. And then, if the opposition doesn’t back down – and, in my experience, Coots rarely shy away from a fight, they attack.
Things can get very heated very quickly, and Coots use their large feet as weapons, hitting out at each other, latching on and pushing their opponents under the water, sometimes almost drowning them.
Fortunately, the fights rarely last very long, and I’ve never seen any injuries on the birds. So, perhaps their disputes look more vicious than they actually are.
02 Sunday Mar 2025
Posted in spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Colt's-foot, Coltsfoot, Coltsfoot leaves, Coltsfoot seedhead, signs of spring, Spring colour, spring flowers, spring wildflowers, Tussilago farfara, yellow wildflowers
Every year I celebrate my first sighting of Colt’s-foot (or Coltsfoot, if you prefer; Tussilago farfara), as the aggressive way it punches its way through overgrown vegetation, layers of dead leaves, even a covering of gravel seems to express for me Nature’s determination to put the cold dark days of winter behind.
And, of course, the sight of these bright bursts of golden yellow seems to mirror the sun’s reappearance in our skies and the ever-lengthening daytime hours.
My focus for this plant has always been on its flower so this year I thought I would also show what comes after. This is a plant whose leaves appear much later than its flowers; in fact, the flowers are often beginning to set their seed before the leaves emerge. The shape of the leaf, supposedly resembling the shape of the underside of a colt’s foot, is how this plant got its common name. And I think you’ll agree that the seedhead is rather beautiful too.
27 Thursday Feb 2025
This week we’ve had a couple of blue-sky days and much-wanted sunshine, with more in the forecast. And, though the overnight temperatures and winds are still quite cold, the daytime temperatures have risen just enough to cause some insects to awaken and emerge.
During today’s wander around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, I spotted these two beautiful Buff-tailed bumblebee queens, one drawn to willow flowers that are just beginning to open and another with her tongue stuck deep into the bright yellow flowers of a gorse bush. Finally, it feels like Spring is in the air.
earthstar 
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