13 Sunday Nov 2022
‘Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts.’ ~ from Where the crawdads sing, Delia Owens, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2018
03 Monday Oct 2022
Tags
British moths, leaf-mining moth, leafmines on narrow-leaved willow, leafmining moth larvae, Phyllocnistis saligna, Phyllocnistis saligna leafmines, Willow bent-wing leafmines
A new month, a new leafmine challenge, and it’s got off to a very successful start for me. But let’s start at the beginning …
Our locally based Senior ecologist with Butterfly Conservation, George, kickstarted the challenge with a couple of tweets and some photos last Friday evening:
Ok #TeamLeafmine here’s another recent S. Wales colonist to look for; an easy one to identify too. Phyllocnistis saligna mines narrow-leaved willows, unusual because it mines both leaves & young stems. 3 recent records by the Taff in North Cardiff, must be out there elsewhere!
Cocoons are formed in a turned over leaf edge, see 3rd photo in original tweet. Quite a few Gwent records from the Levels and Monmouth/Abergavenny, also new to Carmarthenshire in 2021. Must be in & around Cardiff Bay! More info here: http://leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/P.saligna.htm
I didn’t have any firm plans for Saturday’s walk so wended my merry way along the edges of the two local rivers, the Ely and the Taff. I soon realised that this challenge will be a little more difficult than previous ones, as narrow-leaved willows were few and far between and, when found, often inaccessible. However, I did manage to find mines in two locations along the River Taff, which has encouraged me to continue my search further up the river very soon. And, though I hope to find more mines, I doubt I’ll find one of the very lovely little adult Phyllocnistis saligna moths, the wonderfully named Willow bent-wings, which you can see on the UK Moths website.
02 Sunday Oct 2022
Posted in trees
‘The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.’ ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Though I knew that the presence (so, Pedunculate) or absence (no peduncle, so Sessile) of a stalk on the acorns of an Oak tree is how to tell those two species apart, I hadn’t really noticed before the differences in the ‘woolly hats’ (cupules) on the acorns of the various Oak species. Below are, firstly, the Pedunculate (or English) oak (Quercus robur), followed by the Holm (or evergreen) oak (Quercus ilex). I couldn’t find a Sessile oak acorn as they don’t grow along the south Wales coast – they prefer the cooler upland woodlands further north.
20 Tuesday Sep 2022
Tags
Barred Sycamore pigmy moth larval mines, British leafmines, leafmines on Sycamore, leafmining moth larvae, Stigmella speciosa, Sycamore leafminer
While searching out Sycamore tarspot fungi on local Sycamore trees, I’ve also been keeping a look out for leafmines, specifically for the mines of the Barred Sycamore Pigmy moth, Stigmella speciosa. (You can see the very attractive adult moth on the UK Moths website by clicking here.)
Although I’ve found the tarspot fungi, in varying quantities, on almost every Sycamore tree I’ve seen, the leafmines, though supposedly common, are not so easily spotted. Despite checking over a hundred Sycamore trees now, I’ve only found Stigmella speciosa mines in one location, where there were just three mines within the limits of my visibility. Perhaps more will turn up as I continue my search for Sycamore tarspot.
09 Friday Sep 2022
As the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre has only 400 records of the very easily identifiable Sycamore tarspot (Rhytisma acerinum) in its database, SEWBReC staff have chosen this fungus to be the September species of the month to inspire as many people as possible to find and record this fungus. Using the Welsh records database Aderyn, it’s possible to see where people have recorded Sycamore tarspot and, more importantly for this exercise, where they haven’t. I know this fungus is very common in my local area, yet there are few records.
So, I’m making it my mission during my walks this month to find and record Sycamore tarspot in as many 1-km squares as possible. I got off to a good start on Wednesday, with records logged in four new squares. It will be interesting to see how many more I can get, and to see how many records other people manage to find over the next few weeks. I’m picking the map will change dramatically by 30 September.
04 Sunday Sep 2022
Tags
As the days grow noticeably shorter and the leaves being to turn, bursts of colour adorn the trees, shrubs and hedgerows, and help to feed hungry critters, birds, insects … and, occasionally, me, if the blackberries look lush and bursting with flavour.
02 Friday Sep 2022
This lovely old Oak tree was a victim of a storm back in the spring. As it’s in a corner of a local nature reserve, it’s been left for the fungi and insects to enjoy and, eventually, break down. And, when I walked that way on Tuesday, I noticed the fungi have been busy. This is Chicken-of-the-woods (Laetiporus sulphureus), normally a bright sulphur yellow, hence its alternate name of Sulphur polypore, but well past its best now and looking quite woody. To see a younger version of this fungus, check out my previous post on the topic, Chicken-of-the-woods, September 2021.
20 Saturday Aug 2022
More birds are out and about now that they’ve finished the exhausting process of raising young and refreshed their look through their annual feather moult, and it’s been a joy to see and hear them more often during my daily walks. This Reed bunting was showing off its fresh look to perfection amongst the berries of a large old Hawthorn tree.
12 Tuesday Jul 2022
Tags
British sawflies, Caliroa annulipes, larva eating Oak leaves, Oak slug sawfly, sawfly larva on Oak
Another day, another sawfly larva. This one looks more like a weird slug than a caterpillar, which presumably explains its common name of Oak slug sawfly (Caliroa annulipes). I found it fascinating to look at the veins of the Oak leaf that this larva was uncovering as it ate the tissue.
09 Saturday Jul 2022
Tags
British sawflies, larvae eating Birch leaves, Nematus septentrionalis, sawfly larvae, sawfly larvae on Birch
When I spotted these mini-beasties, they were doing a very good job of munching their way through about half the tasty young leaves of a Birch sapling. I knew they were sawfly larvae – that bottom-in-the-air pose is very characteristic of sawfly larvae – and, naturally enough, I assumed they were the Birch sawfly (Cimbex femoratus), but a quick image google showed I was wrong. It took a while to track them down but it seems these are the larvae of Nematus septentrionalis (formerly Craesus septentrionalis).
I was rather concerned for the health of the Birch as it is one of a relatively new plantation at the local country park but, when I revisited the site just a few days later, all but a couple of the larvae had disappeared. I don’t think they would have grown to pupation stage that quickly, so I assume a local bird or two had enjoyed them.
earthstar 
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