01 Monday Apr 2024
On Saturday, in sheltered spots out of the cool wind, it was tshirt weather for the first time this year, and, as well as my pale arms, the butterflies were also out in the sunshine. My first two Speckled woods, butterfly species number five for 2024, were, typically, having a scrap over territory when I first spotted them. Luckily, they soon settled down on separate bushes so I was able to get a few decent photos of them.
31 Sunday Mar 2024
Hawthorn is often called the May tree because it usually flowers during May but, with our wacky weather and changing climate, it’s now flowering at the end of March.
30 Saturday Mar 2024
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Motacilla alba alba, Pied wagtail, White wagtail
White wagtails are Pied wagtails that look a little different, come from a different location and so are usually seen on migration. That’s the gist of it, but trying to nail down the differences between white and regular Pied wags can be tricky. There’s a Bird Guides article online that contains all the facts but to summarise: our regular Pied wagtails that mostly stay put are subspecies Motacilla alba yarrellii, whereas white wagtails are subspecies Motacilla alba alba, and most of the birds seen in Britain are moving from southern continental Europe and Africa to Greenland and Iceland (and vice versa in the autumn). White wagtails can be identified by the clean line between the black at the back of the head and the grey back (especially in male birds); they have a pale grey rump, if you can see it; and the belly and flanks are a very clean white (as opposed to the more streaky grey of Pied wags). Here’s one of several I spotted on Cardiff Bay Barrage yesterday.
29 Friday Mar 2024
The few Brimstones I’ve seen so far this year – just three before today – have been buttery yellow males and have raced past at the speed of light, spreading their pheromones and patrolling their chosen area in the hope of finding themselves a female. Though determining their colour can sometimes be tricky without the other gender for comparison, I think today’s Brimstone, with its paler, more greenish-lemon colour, was a female. She was certainly hungry, happy to linger and make the most of the lush Dandelions.
27 Wednesday Mar 2024
When the alerts in my local WhatsApp groups started to ping yesterday morning with reports of Willow warbler sightings in my area, I had a good idea where I might find one, along the trail beside the River Ely. I’d actually walked that way a couple of times in the previous week, knowing the first arrival must be close. And, when I got there yesterday, bingo! This little beauty, having made the long journey from sub-Saharan Africa, was flitting through the trees, searching for insects, singing all the while. I never cease to be amazed by the wonders of Spring migration.
26 Tuesday Mar 2024
Living up to its name, I found this Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) last Friday alternating between sitting on newly laid woodchip mulch and the adjacent stone wall, basking in the short-lived spring sunshine (we’re now back to grey rainy days). As the Bumblebee Conservation website reports, this bumble is ‘One of the “Big 7” widespread and abundant species, found in a wide range of habitats across the UK’, and is ‘a spring specialist’. If you’re not sure which bumblebee species you’ve seen, the Bumblebee Conservation website also has an excellent online guide that shows clear images of each species’ queens and workers, males and females, as appropriate.
25 Monday Mar 2024
Various commitments last Friday meant I didn’t get out for my walk until the afternoon but, in retrospect, that was probably a good thing as the air had warmed and, in the gaps between the huge clouds rolling across the sky, the sun felt very spring-like.
The happy result was a seven-butterfly day, with four Commas, two Peacocks, and a single male Brimstone that was zipping around a local park at the speed of light, as they do when waiting for the first females to emerge. Fortunately, one of the Peacocks was more interested in feeding from the Three-cornered leeks, so I managed to get a few nice photos.
24 Sunday Mar 2024
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
Tags
British wildflowers, Spring colour, spring flowers, white wildflowers, white-flowered wildflowers
As I mentioned yesterday, this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge on social media was to find native and/or naturalised white-flowered wildflowers and, by walking around with my eyes engaged in a weird version of vertical tennis spectating (eyes to the ground for plants, eyes to the skies for birds – not recommended!), I managed to find seventeen white-flowering plants.
I felt the lushness of Daisies (above) deserved a photo all of its own. The following sixteen are Bramble, Common chickweed, Common mouse-ear, Common whitlowgrass, Cow parsley, Danish scurvygrass, Garlic mustard, Hairy bittercress, Hogweed (purple edged but mostly white), white-flowered Red valerian, Shepherd’s-purse, Snowdrop, Sweet violet, Three-cornered leek, Wild garlic, and Wild strawberry.
23 Saturday Mar 2024
Posted in flowers, spring, wildflowers
≈ Comments Off on A weekend of wildflowers
As this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge on social media is to find white flowers (they will feature in tomorrow’s blog), I thought that today I would post about the coloured wildflowers that have begun to bloom in my local area, so here they are:
A quite random combination of Forget-me-not and Cuckooflower
Both the traditional blue and the pinkish-lilac variation of Spanish bluebells
The yellows: Cowslips and Marsh marigolds and, not really new but beginning to flower in greater numbers now, Dandelions
Flowers with leaves shaped like Ivy: Ivy-leaved speedwell and Ivy-leaved toadflax
Members of the Geranium family: Common stork’s-bill, Herb Robert and Shining crane’s-bill
21 Thursday Mar 2024
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Oenanthe oenanthe, spring migration, Wheatear
When Spring migration draws nigh, I start watching more closely the social media posts from birders living along England’s south coast, as that gives me a fairly good idea about what might turn up on the south Wales coast a day or two later. So, after seeing reports of the first Wheatears arriving 7-10 days ago, I’ve been focusing my walks in the area of Cardiff Bay, as that’s the most likely place for me to spot one. And, finally, yesterday I spotted the first two on the Barrage, initially on the grassy banks but, as so often happens, loose dogs racing madly about scared the birds into seeking refuge amongst the outer barrier of huge boulders. These were two handsome male Wheatears, returning to breed after having spent their winter in sunny central Africa.
