Category Archives: winter

Second hopper of the year

22 Wednesday Jan 2025

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Now you may be wondering ‘Did I miss the first hopper of the year?’ Well, the answer is no. I actually found my first two hoppers in fairly quick succession during last Sunday’s walk, simply by turning over Bramble leaves that were growing along a sunny sheltered lane. The first was a leafhopper, and I’m fairly sure of its identity but a valid query arose when I posted a photo on social media so I decided to wait until that was resolved before blogging about that hopper.

This second bug, a Common froghopper (Philaenus spumarius), was sitting on a Bramble stem, enjoying the sun’s warmth and, no doubt, hoping to be ignored. But a human came lumbering over, spotted it, and thrust a black object in its face. Fortunately, the human didn’t stay long, and the little froghopper returned to its basking.

Marsh tit Monday

20 Monday Jan 2025

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Though Cosmeston Lakes, my local country park, is visited by a wide variety of passing avian rarities, arguably its least common resident bird is the Marsh tit, which makes its home from around October to March within the boundaries of Cogan Wood.

The current population seems to be three, though that’s just an educated guess. When walking through the wood recently, two Marsh tits were coming to food at one well known feeding location, and one bird appeared at a second location at the other end of the woods.

No one knows where the birds go during the breeding season though, as they are small, they’re unlikely to venture far afield. Indeed, it may be that they simply move to some of the outlying areas of the park that are, fortunately, inaccessible to humans so they can breed in peace.

Whatever the reality may be, I’m just glad they are able to sustain their tiny population so that folks like me, who truly appreciate how precious they are, can continue to enjoy watching them.

Elfcups, at last

19 Sunday Jan 2025

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I have no wildflowers for you this Sunday – there are still flowers to be found but I’ve found nothing new or particularly interesting, so today’s colour comes in the form of fungi instead.

I’ve been searching for elfcups since early December, the time of year I’ve begun to see them in the past. I used to see them in abundance at Cwm George in Dinas Powys but I suspect it’s been too wet for them there this winter, with the little stream having flooded the area where the fungi grow.

I had also looked for them in Cardiff’s Bute Park in December but seen no sign. So, I was exceedingly happy, when I visited there last week, to find good numbers had popped up on mossy logs throughout the little area of woodland.

I know from having checked samples under a microscope several years ago that these are Scarlet rather than Ruby elfcups (Sarcoscypha coccinea), and they are gorgeous.

And then there were four

16 Thursday Jan 2025

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First, there were two Goldeneyes in Cardiff Bay, probably females (though juvenile birds also resemble females, and I’m not sure when they get their adult plumage).

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Then, a male turned up.

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And they all fairly quickly found each other and mostly hung out together.

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Then, in the blink of an eye, another one appeared, and so there were four little Goldeneyes cruising around Cardiff Bay.

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They are very entertaining birds to watch, very active, so let’s hope they remain for a while yet (though, sadly, there is a great deal of human disturbance in the Bay, with power boats, kayakers and paddle-boarders all disturbing the local water birds).

First moth of 2025

15 Wednesday Jan 2025

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Yesterday I spotted my first moth of the year, perched on my favourite park railings, this lovely Angle shades.

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If you’ve been following along here for a while, you might remember the saga of Colin, the Angle shades moth I reared from a caterpillar. If you’re new and interested – it’s a lovely little series – these are the posts: Colin the caterpillar, 2 February 2022, followed the next day by Colin’s story; then, on 21 February, Colin the chrysalis; and, an update on his progress, Colin’s coloured up, on 23 February. Then, the final instalment, the joyful announcement, on 26 March 2022, He’s arrived!.

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Cold weather snaps

14 Tuesday Jan 2025

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Here in coastal south Wales, our winter weather is rarely as dramatically cold as locations further north: in my almost ten years of living here, we’ve had just one big dump of snow (the ‘Beast from the East’ in 2018) and, even during the recent cold snap, we only had the occasional sleet shower, where the sleet melted as soon as it hit the ground.

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We do, however, get hard frosts and thick ice, making the pavements treacherous but the countryside beautiful. My photograph above really doesn’t do justice to how lovely the lake looked this particular morning, with the waterfowl gliding through the rising mist.

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Here, my eye was drawn to the way the hoar frost followed the curves of the rings on the top of this wooden fence post. I’m not sure why that is, so, if you know, please do enlighten me in the comments below.

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This ice was also eye-catching. The water below had drained away, leaving the layer of ice suspended in thin air. Again I’m not sure what caused the patterns but there did seem to be a rainbow-coloured oily sheen within the ice so perhaps that was the cause.

A Buzzard searches for worms

10 Friday Jan 2025

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It’s always a surprise to me to see a bird of prey the size of a Buzzard on the ground searching for worms – I expect them to be soaring the skies hunting for much larger prey. But, when that larger prey is in short supply, worms will quell the hunger pangs.

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This Buzzard was searching through the grass in a local horse field, a favourite place for many species of bird to look for food, presumably because the horse manure helps ensure a plentiful supply of worms and small invertebrates.

Redwing up close

06 Monday Jan 2025

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In my local area, Redwings have been much less plentiful than usual so far this winter, and most of those I have seen have been distant and skittish.

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So, I was particularly pleased to get very close to this one hunting for food amongst the leaves, very close to the roadside entrance to a local park, back in mid December.

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It flew to the trees at one point, when a couple walked along the path in to the park, but I waited, standing quietly back against the foliage, to see if it would return. When a much more confident male Blackbird came down and began to flick energetically through the leaf litter, the Redwing could see that it was missing out on some juicy worms and other titbits, so it also returned to feed. I got a few more photos then slowly retreated to continue my walk and leave the two thrushes to their feasting.

Lesser thorn-tipped longhorn beetle

04 Saturday Jan 2025

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On 9 December, once again on the local park railings (I check them regularly now as I keep finding interesting creatures on them), I found my first ever Lesser thorn-tipped longhorn beetle (Pogonocherus hispidus). It’s thought to resemble a bird-dropping for camouflage, and named ‘thorn-tipped’ because of the thorn-like projections at the tips of its elytra (wing cases). I wondered, on social media, about its presence on the railings, and one of my followers provided the likely reason: ‘I think they get blown out of trees in windy weather. We get them on gravestones under trees in our local cemetery after high winds.’ The specimen I found has its ‘long horns’ tucked in at its sides so I recommend you take a look at the much clearer photos of this odd-looking beetle and read more about it in one of Steven Falk’s Flickr albums here.

250104 Lesser Thorn-tipped Longhorn Beetle