Category Archives: winter

New Year’s Plant Hunt

03 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by in flowers, plants, wildflowers, winter

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The New Year Plant Hunt is happening again this year, from 1 to 4 January, but participants must, of course, stick to the Covid-19 restrictions in their areas. (In case you’re new to the idea of the Plant Hunt, all the details are on the BSBI website here.) I am taking part, of course, and, as a practice run, I used my meander around local streets and countryside footpaths on New Year’s Eve to see what I could find. It was very chilly, as you’ll see from the ice crystals still on a couple of the flowers, but I was very pleased to find 14 plants still in bloom: Alexanders, Bramble, Common vetch, Daisy, Dandelion, Gorse, Groundsel, Ivy, Knapweed, Primrose, Red clover, Red valerian, Shepherd’s purse, and Winter heliotrope.

364/366 A vibrant treat

29 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in fungi, nature, winter

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It would be fair to say that my fungi-finding year was fairly dismal: only about 20 of this year’s 366 blog posts were about fungi. The highlight, though, was brilliant – the vibrant, intense, almost unreal blue of the Cobalt crust (Terana caerulea) that I posted about earlier this month, in Not just any stick. I haven’t yet been back for a second look at it – I’ve been saving that for a New Year treat!

358/366 Complete tripe

23 Wednesday Dec 2020

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Though I always try to vary the routes I walk, I was reminded of how important this is on Monday’s local meander. I usually walk back from our local beach through one of the parks but this day decided to stomp up the hill via the road instead. It was a good choice, as I found lots of lovely Tripe fungi (Auricularia mesenterica) on a large stump beside the road. And the stump held the complete life cycle of the Tripe, from the small rubbery looking buttons to the bracket-like structures they later merge into.

357/366 Grainy wagtails

22 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in birds, winter

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These are very grainy photos as the weather was atrocious and I didn’t have my good camera, had only popped out briefly from home between showers to get milk and a few groceries from the corner shop, but I was so delighted to spot this family of three Grey wagtails foraging in the lane behind my house that I just had to share. It seems the usual Pied wagtails are being challenged for the urban pickings this winter!

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355/366 Spring … oh, wait

20 Sunday Dec 2020

Posted by in wildflowers, winter

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So, no, it’s not spring. It’s only really the beginning of winter and, yet, in three different locations this week I’ve found Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) in flower. I think these glistening wildflowers do bloom quite early in the new year – they’re just even earlier than usual.

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354/366 Goosander courtship

19 Saturday Dec 2020

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This gorgeous redheaded female Goosander is cruising along the River Ely, diving, fishing, minding her own business, when …

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… this dude literally drops out of the sky right by her, and indicates, by the way he points his beak skywards, that he’s in the mood for a little hanky panky, but …

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… when it comes to it, he feigns aloofness. The female adopts a submissive posture, and she chases him and chases him and chases him and chases him until …

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… finally, he gets the idea, and the action begins (the look on her face!) …

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… and then, after dismounting, he doesn’t want to let go. (And now I know why she has that hair-do!)

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352/366 Winter travellers

17 Thursday Dec 2020

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When winter begins to tighten its deadly grip on the world’s northernmost latitudes, food gets scarce and many birds either flee south or face starvation.

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Fieldfares come chack-chack-chacking all the way across the North Sea from Scandinavia, some even further, from the desolate snowbound plains of Siberia.

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Some Redwings also fly across the North Sea, though most of those we see in Britain have come south from Iceland. Seeing and hearing these gorgeous birds is one of winter’s highlights for me.

350/366 S s s s … Siskin

15 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in birds, trees, winter

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Siskin (Carduelis spinus) are not finches I see very often so, when I heard their high-pitched whistles at Grangemoor Park last Saturday, I immediately looked up to try to spot them.

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And there they were, perhaps six birds, feeding on Alder cones, high above me. There were other trees in my sightline and the light was shocking so it wasn’t easy to watch or photograph them.

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Still, I lingered on the muddy path for 20 minutes or so, enjoying their upside-down feeding techniques, listening to their noisy interaction, enjoying the fleeting glints of yellow when the sun lit their feathers. What a treat!

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