17 Sunday Nov 2024
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I recently enjoyed a long meander around Bute Park, in Cardiff, delighting in the kaleidoscope of autumn colours.
The 130-acre park is part parkland, part playing fields, part woodland, and part landscaped garden, including an arboretum full of spectacular trees from around the world, so my photos include not only native but also exotic trees.
16 Saturday Nov 2024
Posted in birds
Tags
Alexandrine parakeet, birding, birds of Bute Park, birdwatching, British birds, Bute Park, Ring-necked parakeet
Last week, to counter the continuing anticyclonic gloom, I took myself for a lovely wander around Cardiff’s Bute Park, admiring and photographing the beautiful autumn colours (I’ll post those tomorrow), and was entertained by five raucous Ring-necked parakeets and their companion, an Alexandrine parakeet, the first I’ve seen in the city.
Due to the grey misty weather and having to look straight up in to a tall tree, my photos are not the best (please excuse the dreadful chromatic aberration) but I think you can see the difference in the two parakeet species. The Alexandrine, which is in the centre and was probably someone’s pet before it escaped to live life on the wild side, is quite a bit bigger than the Ring-necked parakeets. The Alexandrine also has a much longer tail and, though it’s not easy to see here, it has red patches on its ‘shoulders’.
I’m not sure the Ring-necked parakeets were very happy with the Alexandrine’s presence as it seemed to be a bit of a bully. And the Carrion crows were not at all happy with either species of parakeet being in their woodland, but I think the parakeets are probably here to stay.
15 Friday Nov 2024
Posted in fungi
At well over 12 inches, these must be the tallest Shaggy inkcaps (Coprinus comatus) I’ve ever seen, spotted growing in a nearby coastal field earlier this week. And just this morning, on social media, I read a post by a ranger at RSPB Lakenheath Fen saying he’d also seen his biggest there this week. Something about this year’s climatic conditions must be suiting them.
14 Thursday Nov 2024
Is this the last butterfly I’ll see in 2024? Quite possibly, as the overnight temperatures have now started to fall to single digits. Still, Red admirals are very resilient and, though they should have migrated south by now, I’m seeing reports of the odd one, like this beauty I spotted in a local field on Tuesday, still flying when the sun occasionally appears.
13 Wednesday Nov 2024
Tags
British leafminers, British moths, Gypsonoma dealbana, Gypsonoma species, leaf-mining moth larvae, moth larvae on Oak, Oak leafmines
Two leafmine posts on one week may be a bit much for the uninterested amongst you, but this is really just a postscript to my recent post on the leafmines of two possible Gypsonoma species of moths (Leafmines: Gypsonoma species, 28 October). As I outlined in that blog I hadn’t been able to be precise in my identification as there are two Gypsonoma species that mine the leaves of Poplar. Fortunately for me, there is only one that mines Oak leaves and I managed to find several examples on an Oak sapling at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park during a walk last week.
I was investigating any signs of leaf damage, which may have been caused by munching beetles or snails or various other hungry mini-beasties but, in this case, I was lucky to spot these four examples of Gypsonoma dealbana, where the moth larvae have used silk and their own frass to spin themselves tiny tubes to hide in (I’ve shown the upper and lower sides of the leaves so you can get an idea what to look for, if you’re so inclined). I’m not sure if the larvae were still present – I didn’t prod them to find out, though it’s likely they’ve already moved down into the soil below the tree, spun a little cocoon, and begun hibernating the winter months away.
12 Tuesday Nov 2024
Posted in birds
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Cormorant, rafting Cormorants, squadron of Cormorants
This squadron of Cormorants was rafting, quite successfully, in Cardiff Bay, though they were constantly being disturbed by all the marine traffic.
I’ve blogged about this rafting behaviour before, including a quote from research covering the effectiveness of this fishing behaviour, in Rafting Cormorants, December 2022. I thought I’d cover this again, as the squadron was quite close, and it was large, and my photos are better than previously, and I was only one of several people who stopped to watch them.
When preparing this blog I discovered that the collective nouns for Cormorants include squadron (hence the title of this blog), raft (a reference to the behaviour shown here), the standard bird word flock, and – I loved this one – gulp, presumably a nod to how they manage to swallow down enormous fish.
11 Monday Nov 2024
The new leafmines are coming thick and fast this year, not because my skills are improving but rather because I’m following the right people on social media and take my inspiration for searching from what they’re finding.
Today’s leafmines, made by the larvae of the moth Ectoedemia argyropeza, can be found on Aspen (Populus tremula) between July and November. They are easier to spot later in the season when the leaves turn brown and begin to fall as the mines cause the surrounding leaf area to remain green – the so-called ‘green islands’ that some moth species have the ability to create through the chemicals they secrete, which allows them to continue feeding in their portion of the leaf. The other thing to look for with these miners is the brown mark in the leaf petiole, where the mine originated.
Though I don’t often bring home the mines I find, in this instance I had been unable to get good photos along the busy road so brought home one leaf. I temporarily forgot about the leaf for a couple of days and , when I opened the little pot it was in, found the larva had left the mine so I am also able to show you what it looks like, below.
10 Sunday Nov 2024
Posted in autumn, plants, wildflowers
This post was prompted by my bumping in to ‘The Blackberry man’ during yesterday’s walk. I don’t know his name; he’s just a random stranger I got talking to two winters ago during a walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. I was picking a few Blackberries to eat, he was filling a small container to take home for his family. He’s an older man, originally from a Middle Eastern country, and doesn’t have great English, but we got by. And now, whenever we see each other at the park, we stop and chat for a few minutes.
Seeing him led me to look more closely at the Brambles. The majority of plants had already flowered, produced berries and the fruit that hadn’t been eaten had gone to seed but, scattered here and there amongst the plants, there were still a few flowers, and a few immature and ripe berries.
I also couldn’t help but admire the exceptional colour variations and intensity of colour displayed by the Bramble leaves as autumn progresses. So, thank you Blackberry man, for reminding me to look more closely at these often-overlooked plants.
09 Saturday Nov 2024
Posted in birds
This beautiful creature is one of the pair of Ravens that live in Cardiff Bay.
As well as being a stunning bird, it has one special quality that marks it out – it has no voice.
It tries very very hard to kronk but barely any sound comes out.
Luckily, its mate doesn’t seem to mind.
08 Friday Nov 2024
After a week when our skies have been grey and damp and low-cloudy due to something the weather forecasters have labelled ‘anti-cyclonic gloom’, and when voters’ choices have darkened the world around us even more, I feel the need for some colour for fungi Friday. So, here are more lovely waxcaps, photographed during another recent cemetery visit and at my local country park.
earthstar 
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