27 Sunday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers
‘For me, wildflowers are joy-giving. They have enriched my life and fed my soul and given beautiful memories to sustain me.’ ~ Lady Bird Johnson letter in National Wildflower Research Center report ‘The First Ten Years: 1983-1993’
26 Saturday Oct 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, feral pigeon, pigeon, squab
Squab: it’s an odd word to describe a young unfledged pigeon. The Oxford Dictionary gives its origins as: “Mid 17th century (in the sense ‘inexperienced person’): of unknown origin; compare with obsolete quab ‘shapeless thing’ and Swedish dialect skvabba ‘fat woman’.”
To me, judging by the behaviour of these two feral pigeons squabs I saw recently harassing their parent for food, squab seems more likely to come from squabble: a noisy quarrel! I almost felt sorry for the adult as it was chased along the pavement by its two young, who then pushed their heads as far down the adult’s open beak as possible, hoping for the ‘milk’ pigeons feed their young.
25 Friday Oct 2019
Tags
Wales is once again living up to its reputation for being a wet country, a fact about which I may not be particularly happy but the slugs are once again / still loving it.
24 Thursday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Everything was dripping today as my little bit of south Wales was cloaked in heavy fog. I headed down to Cardiff Bay hoping some interesting birds might be sitting out the murkiness but, if they were, I couldn’t see them. Plants were easier to spot so, as I walked back home up the zigzag path, I kept an eye out for which wildflowers were still in bloom. I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers I found, and the water droplets added a pretty touch to some of my photos, I think.
23 Wednesday Oct 2019
Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever seen female (on the left) and male Migrant hawkers together. These two were hanging on a fence at Goldcliff lagoons, near Newport. What a treat!
22 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in autumn, flowers, nature, wildflowers
I was surprised, but delighted to find this Honeysuckle plant still in flower today.
Did you know its scent, which is strongest at night, can be detected by pollinating moths a quarter of a mile away (Flora Britannica)? Did you know its vernacular name is woodbine (I know at least one of you did) and the plant is mentioned in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms ..
So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle
21 Monday Oct 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, eclipse male Goosander, Goosander, juvenile Goosander, plumage change in Goosander
There were actually 5 Goosanders on the River Ely this morning. Four stayed their distance but this one, paddling alone, came over to investigate me.
I’ve been trying to work it out. I don’t think it’s a female – though they have reddish-brown heads, they’re more generally grey in the body, without so much black on their backs.
And it seems that in juvenile Goosanders the separation between the white throat and chin and the brown head is less clear cut, more ragged – in this bird it seems well defined.
So that leaves me with a male bird in eclipse plumage, i.e. still undergoing the change from its breeding plumage (of black-dark green head and upper neck) to its winter plumage, though that would usually be complete by now, I think.
Hence my confusion. If any experienced birders reader this, I would welcome your opinions (and explanations). Thanks!
20 Sunday Oct 2019
One of the ghosts of the many beautiful fallen leaves …
19 Saturday Oct 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, Britain's smallest bird, British birds, Europe's smallest bird, Goldcrest
Goldcrests always look sad to me – something to do with their big eyes and that dark, downturned line at the side of their beaks, perhaps.
Should they be sad? Being Europe’s littlest birds means life must be quite tough, especially as hundreds of these tiny creatures regularly migrate across the North Sea from Scandinavia to northern and eastern parts of Britain. According to Fauna Britannica, large numbers of Goldcrests used to be trapped in the rigging of North Sea fishing boats, which is why their vernacular names include ‘herring spink’ and ‘tot o’er the seas’.
I was delighted to see a good number of Goldcrests in trees along the south Wales coast this week. Their constant peeping indicated their presence – luckily for me, I can still hear their calls: the high pitch means many birders ‘lose’ the calls of Goldcrests as their hearing deteriorates with age. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen to me.
Goldcrests are not easy to photograph as they’re hyperactive little creatures, constantly flitting from leaf to branch and back again in their search for tasty tiny morsels, so I was pleased to get these few images, even though they’re not the sharpest.
18 Friday Oct 2019
I know Wales has a reputation for being a wet country but the past couple of weeks have been much wetter than any I’ve known in my four years here. Still, it’s good weather for slugs, which is why this large and colourful beastie was to be found sliding its way across my path today. It was about 3 inches long and I presume, despite its colour – they vary a lot, that it’s a Black slug (Arion ater agg.), a species that can only be positively identified by examination of its genitals. I’m not going there!
earthstar 
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