09 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature, trees
While sneaking up on a juvenile Green woodpecker at Cosmeston, I spotted these lovely examples of Alder tongue (Taphrina alni).
I’ve covered these intriguing galls in a previous blog post so, just briefly, they’re the result of a fungus that chemically alters its host. One of Nature’s oddities!
08 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, Bog hoverfly, British hoverflies, Devil's-bit scabious, hoverfly, Lavernock Nature Reserve, pink scabious, Sericomyia silentis
It looks a bit like a wasp but this black-and-yellow-striped minibeastie is a hoverfly with the rather tongue-twisting name Sericomyia silentis. Perhaps Bog hoverfly would be easier but, in my opinion, its common name doesn’t do this little beauty justice.
I spent a couple of hours today at Lavernock Nature Reserve, where the Devil’s-bit scabious is looking simply stunning and is attracting myriads of insects. I took lots of butterfly photos but thought to post one of the other little critters today. The Devil’s-bit is usually a lilac colour but some at Lavernock are this subtle shade of pink instead. Its nectar obviously tastes just as good!
07 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature
I know the Large white butterfly is the bane of gardeners who like to grow their own cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli but you can’t deny how lovely it is – or, rather, she is: the two spots and a dash on the upper forewings mean this is a female. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Large white with such black markings before – she must be newly hatched, which means she may be from a third brood. She was simply perfect!
06 Friday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, nature
Water, and the way it interacts with other materials, can be fascinating. Take the water droplets on this feather, for example.
Considering there weren’t any droplets on the surrounding dirt or grass, I’m not exactly sure why the water is clinging to the feather in this way. Presumably it has something to do with the structure of the feather itself, the miniscule hooks and barbs that hold the feather together and help to keep a bird waterproof. It certainly was lovely to look at.
05 Thursday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, moulting bird, moulting Blackbird
As I’m sure most of you know, birds undergo a moult of their feathers after breeding, which is why everything goes very quiet for a few weeks: they’re vulnerable to predation while their new feathers are growing in. This Blackbird appears to have completed its moult of body feathers but not yet its head. Either that or it has some kind of infection or parasite, perhaps, that’s caused this partial loss.
Fortunately, the bird’s baldy look is not affecting its ability to get about or feed. As I watched this morning, it cleared away a big pile of leaves and snaffled down the fat juicy worm it found.
04 Wednesday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, British dragonflies, dragonflies, dragonfly, dragonfly eating wasp, Hawker dragonflies, Southern hawker, wasp
Today’s lunchtime snack for this Southern hawker dragonfly had a sting in the tail: it was a wasp. The dragonfly, though, started its meal from the other end, first devouring the head, then removing the wings, before steadily munching its way down the body.
This was obviously not good news for the wasp but it was good news for me, as this was the first Southern hawker that’s stayed still long enough this year for me to grab some photos.
03 Tuesday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
bees, Devil's-bit scabious, hoverflies, insects on scabious, Painted Lady, scabious, Small white butterfly
At this time of year, the delicate lilac tinge of Devil’s-bit scabious casts its imperial purple shadow across the meadows at Cosmeston and at Lavernock. I love it, and I’m not the only one.
It’s proving extremely popular as a late-summer early-autumn source of nectar for all manner of bees, butterflies and hoverflies. Here are a few I’ve seen in recent days …
02 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, British insects, cricket, Dark bush-cricket, meadow insects, Pholidoptera griseoaptera
I’ve been back to the field where I saw Friday’s ‘grappling grasshoppers’ to investigate the other interesting insects I noticed. This is one of them, a gloriously ‘armoured’ Dark bush-cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera).
According to the Buglife website, you ‘must creep up on them to see them properly’ but, luckily, I had my zoom lens, plus this creature was probably quite confident in its ability to out-leap me if necessary and was too happy basking in the sunshine to be bothered about me.
01 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, flowers, nature, seasons, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, Autumn Lady’s-tresses, British orchids, British wildflowers, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, orchids, Spiranthes spiralis
Happy (calendar) Autumn!
Today’s plant couldn’t be more appropriate – these are Autumn lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis). True to their name, they usually appear when the weather turns more autumnal, and their twirling spiral form apparently reminded their original namer of the ringlets once popular in women’s hairstyles.
Though they like to grow in very short turf, Autumn lady’s-tresses are themselves quite small and, surrounded as these were by other wildflowers, especially the superficially similar Eyebright, they weren’t easy to spot.
Luckily for me, when I was having an early wander around Cosmeston this morning, I bumped into a friend of a friend, who is extremely knowledgeable about the local flora, and he very kindly showed me where these gorgeous little orchids were growing.
31 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, birds, nature
The yellowing of the leaves on the tree outside my window, my sightings of migrating birds, the cooler night-time temperatures have all been telling me for a couple of weeks that autumn is on its way, something the calendar will agree with tomorrow. But, for me, one of the true indicators is the arrival of the Turnstones, back from their breeding season in Greenland and northern Canada.
The five I spotted on the Ely embankment this morning still show some of their summer colouring but those chestnut feathers will soon disappear as the birds complete their moult into winter plumage. Welcome back, my little friends!
earthstar 
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