O is for Odonata

20 Saturday Dec 2025

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As I mentioned earlier in this end-of-year countdown, 2025 has been a very good year for odonata finds. As well as the Norfolk hawker, the Common hawker and the Keeled skimmer I’ve already included in this countdown, I was privileged this year to see my first ever Scarce chaser (Lifer: Scarce chaser, 19 June) and only my second ever sighting of Black darters (Black darter, 23 August) (below).

Somewhat unexpectedly, I also saw a Scarce chaser on a subsequent occasion, a couple of weeks after my first sightings of them in Weymouth, this time in Tiddesley Wood near Pershore in Worcestershire, when I used Cheltenham as my base to explore several places in the surrounding area. That slightly kinky individual is the one pictured below.

N is for nest

19 Friday Dec 2025

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Nest: noun; a structure built by birds or insects to leave their eggs in to develop, and by some other animals to give birth or live in (Cambridge Dictionary).

In January, I spotted a Nuthatch excavating a hole in a tree in which to make its nest (Nest excavation, 25 January), though on subsequent visits the hole seemed to have been abandoned.

At the end of March, during one of my local meanders, the screeching of several Rooks drew my eyes upwards to discover several nests, with adults feeding well grown but ever hungry chicks (A new rookery, 2 April).

When is a nest not a nest? Check out the Cyathus striatus fungi I wrote about at the end of January (Fluted bird’s nest fungi, 31 January).

M is for mite

18 Thursday Dec 2025

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When preparing this series of countdown blog posts, I revisited the two locations where I found Grape mites (Galls on grapevines, 26 July) earlier this year, hoping to take a new photo to accompany this post. Unfortunately, I’d left it too late, as the grape vines were both bare, their leaves dead and already dropped off or blown from their branches on to the ground below. My find of this miniscule mite was one of my ‘first for Wales’ sightings in 2025 and I’m quite surprised to note that no other sightings have yet been recorded though, on checking iRecord, sightings do look quite sparse across Britain so far. I’ve already made a diary note to check for the mites (Colomerus vitis) again next year, and will be on the lookout for their telltale signs in other locations.

L is for lepidopteran lifers

17 Wednesday Dec 2025

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The 11th of June was a red letter day for Lepidoptera! I was enjoying a mini break In the Dorset seaside town of Weymouth and had caught the bus to the Isle of Portland to look for butterflies in the unique habitat of Portland’s former stone quarries. I was specifically hoping to see my first Lulworth skippers, and I did (Lifer: Lulworth skipper, 16 June).

I was not expecting to see a second lepidopteran lifer that day, but I did, my first ever Silver-studded blue butterflies (Lifer: Silver-studded blue, 14 June). It was the stuff my dreams are made of!

K is for Keeled skimmers

16 Tuesday Dec 2025

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Dragonflies feature in three of my countdown blog posts this year as I’ve been fortunate to have seen several new species, and others that I had only seen once previously. Keeled skimmers, blogged about on 26 August, were one of the latter species, and what a delight it was to watch them skimming back and forth around the ponds at Maesteg, a new site for me that I plan to revisit next year.

I is for Ichneumon

14 Sunday Dec 2025

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This has been a good year for sightings of Ichneumon wasps, and I have written a couple of posts about some I’ve found: Three Ichneumon wasps, on 19 August, featured my first Ctenichneumon panzeri record (now verified); Heteropelma amictum, found on the same day but not yet verified (the national Ichneumon recorder is currently working his way through what must be a huge number of national records – these voluntary verifiers do an incredible job!); and Ichneumon stramentor, a species I’d seen previously and which has been verified. Another first sighting, the handsome Tromatobia lineatoria, whose identity has also now been confirmed, featured in a second blog, Ichneumon: Tromatobia lineatoria, published recently, on 13 November.

There have, of course, been other Ichneumon sightings. One that I didn’t write about because I was rather unsure of its identification is shown above; it has now been verified as one of the Pimpla species. And in July I found a cocoon, which I recognised as having been created by an Ichneumon wasp but has now been confirmed as belonging to the subfamily Campopleginae. I’m hoping my luck at finding new Ichneumon species will continue in 2026.

H is for hawkers

13 Saturday Dec 2025

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What a grand year 2025 has been for dragonfly sightings, partly because, since downsizing my home situation, I’ve finally been able to afford to venture further afield – nothing too adventurous, no trips abroad, but four lovely little mini-breaks in English locations to look for wildlife I’m not able to see closer to home.

That’s how, during a wonderful week in Weymouth in June, I saw my first ever Norfolk hawkers (see Lifer: Norfolk hawker, 18 June) (above). However, my second ‘first-ever’ hawker species sighting (see Lifer: Common hawker, 22 August) (below) was here in Wales, in a small town high in one of the south Wales valleys that I hadn’t previously visited and didn’t know was home to a pond that held some very nice dragonfly species. That visit was a good reminder to explore more widely here in Wales next year, as well as in England.

G is for Grey seal

12 Friday Dec 2025

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Having walked across Cardiff Bay’s Barrage umpteen times in the more than ten years I’ve lived in this area and never seen a seal, I’m now been treated to four sightings since my first in early September (see my blog Finally, a Grey seal, on 6 September).

I have no idea why I was so unsuccessful in the past, nor why I’m seeing seals more often; though I think, in fact, it’s only one seal. Looking at my photos (the images below were taken on 27 September and 30 October), the markings around the seal’s head look the same to me, so I think this is the same seal returning to the Barrage because it’s learned that, after heavy rain and when the sluices are open, a plentiful quantity of fish is washed down the rivers Taff and Ely and out into the Bristol Channel. Not great for the fish but the perfect location for a hungry Grey seal.

F is for foxes

11 Thursday Dec 2025

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One of the best things about my change of abode earlier this year is the wildlife I now see in the garden, the occasional rare bird as well as the more common species and, best of all, the Foxes. I’ve blogged about them twice, views of the whole family in Foxes in the garden!, on 25 June, and the male and female adults reinforcing their pair bond in Amorous Foxes, on 7 October.

The photo above was taken more recently, on 10 November, when the local Magpies were playing chicken with the Fox, a game I’ve seen them play a few times. The birds hop as close as they dare to the Fox, it watches them and sometimes pretends to move towards them, making them fly off. There seems no real menace in the Fox’s expression but I’m sure it wouldn’t turn down a Magpie meal if it got the chance.