08 Thursday Feb 2024
This little critter was hanging on to a house wall I passed yesterday. I’m fairly sure it’s a cranefly species and it might be Tipula pagana. However, although I’ve lightened it a lot, my photo doesn’t show the identifying features well enough and, according to what I’ve read, it shouldn’t be out and about at this time of year. It was certainly nice to see an insect at last, as, understandably, they are all hiding away at the moment.
03 Saturday Feb 2024
Like a bird giant, a Curlew strides past this small grouping of Ringed plovers and Dunlins.
At first glance, I thought there were only a couple of the smaller birds snoozing at the water’s edge but, as the tide was coming in, their slumbers kept being interrupted by waves splashing over them, so every few minutes they had to shuffle a bit further up the beach. And when that happened, more little heads would pop up from where they’d been tucked down amongst the rocks.
02 Friday Feb 2024
Posted in insects, plants, wildflowers, winter
Tags
Alexanders, Alexanders rust, Collembola, Puccinia smyrnii, Smyrnium olusatrum, springtail, springtail feeding on Alexanders rust, springtails on Alexanders
One of the most abundant plants along the South Wales Coastal Path, even in the depths of winter, is Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), and, almost as soon as it breaks ground, it seems to have rust on its stems and leaves. This rust, Alexanders rust (Puccinia smyrnii), is only ever found on this plant species, and when I was examining the rust recently, I noticed it was providing a meal for some tiny springtails. I’m not sure which springtail species these are – they can be tricky to identify, but many species are known to snack on fungi, fungal spores, mould and bacteria so I guess they find the rust spores a tasty meal.
31 Wednesday Jan 2024
It’s been a bit of struggle finding invertebrates this month – everything’s tucked away out of the cold and the rain – so I was very pleased to see this Red-legged shieldbug trying to hide in this little clump of Ivy berries. If it’s not careful a hungry bird will have a crunchy treat when it comes feeding on the berries.
30 Tuesday Jan 2024
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Siskin, Siskin feeding on Alder cones
It was easy to hear their sibilant chatter (if you’ve never heard it, SoundCloud has a good recording). With their green, yellow and black colouring, they were well camouflaged so it was hard to pick them out among the Alder branches and cones. And, because of all those twigs, branches and cones, it was even harder to get photographs, which is my excuse for not getting better images of the noisy Siskins I found feeding near the Glamorgan Canal at Forest Farm Nature Reserve last week.
29 Monday Jan 2024
I took this short video back in November but had so much other material to share that it never got posted on YouTube until now. You might think hoverfly larva are slow and ungainly but just look at how quickly this little guy can move up the tree trunk. (Sorry it gets a bit blurry towards the end.)
Of course, as we’ve moved in to the colder temperatures and inclement weather of winter, we don’t see hoverfly larva out and about so much. But, as I found yesterday, if you pick up a handful of leaf litter and riffle through it, you can still find these larvae. I’m not sure how long this little creature will remain in its larval state before pupating – I think that depends to some degree on species – but it was certainly a nice reward for getting my fingers mucky.
28 Sunday Jan 2024
Posted in wildflowers, winter
January’s weather has been all over the place. First, we shivered through a week of colder than average temperatures, then two wild and windy named storms blew away what few flowers had survived the cold, and now our weather is milder than usual. As a result, our flora (and fauna) seem confused about whether it’s winter or spring, and finding wildflowers in bloom has been hard work this week. However, after walking my patch for several years, I know where the more sheltered places are and so have managed to find 18 wildflowers in bloom.
Just in case you don’t recognise them, these are: Daisy, Dandelion, Field speedwell, Gorse, both the female and male flowers of Hazel, Hoary mustard, Ivy-leaved toadflax, Lesser celandine, Mayweed, the white-flowered version of Pink campion, Primrose, Sea radish, Snowdrop, Sweet violet, Three-cornered leek, Wild strawberry, and Winter heliotrope.
27 Saturday Jan 2024
With the slicked-up feathers on top of his head, the dark ear muffs, the stylish plumage in 50 shades of grey, black and white, this juvenile Long-tailed duck is quite the sophisticated dude, don’t you think? He’s a first winter bird, born last summer, so hasn’t yet got the long tail his species is named for but that will soon grow in.
He’s been hanging out near the Barrage in Cardiff Bay for about a week, spending most of his time around the string of orange buoys in front of the sluices, diving frequently in and around those buoys then startling the perching Black-headed gulls when he pops up right next to them. The Coots don’t much like this foreigner in their patch either, but then Coots are ornery about most things.
26 Friday Jan 2024
I’ve probably said this before. I’ll probably say this again in the future. Next time you’re passing a wooden fence- or gate-post, particularly an older post, take a moment to look at the top of it because there will almost certainly be a marvellous miniscule landscape, with a dazzling display of diverse textures and lush colours, and possibly even a tiny creature or two.
25 Thursday Jan 2024
Posted in plants, wildflowers, winter
As the weather has now turned unseasonally mild, I had hoped to find a Water vole when I meandered past the dipping pond at Cosmeston but none had ventured out of their holes. So, instead, you get bulrushes – not quite the same, I admit, but I’ve always liked their flowerheads, particularly when, like these, they’re shedding their fluffy seeds.
Though other plants are also called bulrushes, the ones shown here are what most of us recognise when we hear that word. This is Great reedmace (Typha latifoli), a tall, long-leaved plant that typically grows on the margins of freshwater ponds and ditches.
earthstar 
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