A bird’s verdict

15 Wednesday Nov 2023

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Hate is a strong word but I can honestly say that I hate plastic grass! Not only does it look fake, it’s incredibly bad for the environment. (Rather than me arguing the points for and against plastic grass, there’s a great article on Plymouth University website that answers the question ‘Why are artificial lawns bad for the environment?‘.) I particularly hate the plastic grass in the photo below – it’s literally at the beach, with just the coastal path separating the property from the sand and rocks, so its very presence spoils the natural environment that surrounds it. When I walk that way, I feel angry and sad and also baffled that someone who lives in such a beautiful location has chosen to cover their front yard with a carpet of plastic. When I passed by last week, for the first time I also felt amused, because the Pied wagtail, when it realised it would find no insects in this plastic desert, raised its tail and pooped, before flying off to more productive pastures. The bird’s reaction seemed perfect to me and entirely appropriate!

231115 pied wagtail on plastic

A mess of Hare’s-foot fungi

14 Tuesday Nov 2023

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When I take photos of fungi, I often try to tidy up the scene a little first, plucking away stray twigs or flattening with my shoe the grass that’s obscuring the view of the actual fungi. In this particular situation, that was not possible, partly because I couldn’t get any closer to the fungi (which were on private land) and partly because, even if I could’ve moved closer, there was simply too much vegetation to remove without damaging their fragile forms. So, I decided to present these Hare’s-foot inkcaps (Coprinopsis lagopus) as they really were, small and elegant black-and-white parasols partially obscured amidst a colourful mess of small branches and leaf litter. A very autumnal scene.

Leafmines: Coleophora gryphipennella

13 Monday Nov 2023

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Another leaf-turning session recently resulted in another leafminer, the tiny moth Coleophora gryphipennella whose larvae feed on various species of Rosa. (You can see the adult moth on the UK Moths website here.)

231113 Coleophora gryphipennella on Rosa sp (1)

According to the British Leafminers website, the larvae, which create a tiny case to live in, can initially be found mining leaves from late August to late October. They hibernate in their cases over the colder winter months before emerging to feed again from April to mid May in a newly constructed case. These moths are apparently common, though this is the first I’ve spotted in all my time spent staring at and turning over leaves.

231113 Coleophora gryphipennella on Rosa sp (2)

59!

12 Sunday Nov 2023

Posted by in autumn, flowers, wildflowers

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I was surprised at the start of the week to find wildflowers blooming that should long since have gone to seed and that inspired me to see just how many wild flowers I could find during this week’s walks. The answer, of course, is in the title of this post – 59! That is to say, I have 59 images to share but there were a few more plants in flower that I didn’t manage, for one reason or another, to photograph. Some wildflowers were quite unexpected, like the Carline thistle that had one flower open and 3 more buds still to develop; some were abundant, like the Yellow-wort still standing tall in a field at Cosmeston; others, like the Common stork’s-bill, were the last survivors of the strimmers that have been very active this month. Here they all are …

Purple jelly

10 Friday Nov 2023

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I don’t see Purple jellydisc (Ascocoryne sarcoides) very often in my area – not sure why, so it was a lovely surprise to spot it on some felled trees in Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park last week. As the First Nature website explains, this fungus has two stages: the telemorphic stage where the fungus forms cup-like structures in which ascospores are produced and the anamorphic stage that I found in which asexual (cloned) conidia are produced. There is a very similar fungus, Ascocoryne cylichnium, but it only has cup-shaped fruit bodies.

231110 purple jelly disc

Hide and huddle

09 Thursday Nov 2023

Posted by in autumn, insects, leaves

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When the weather’s cold and wet, it’s time to hide and huddle. I found five 7-spot ladybirds and a Hairy shieldbug in this rolled-up leaf. (And, don’t fret, I rolled it up again so they could get back to their snoozing.)

231109 hide huddle hairy shieldbug 7spots

And they’re not the only ones choosing leaves for home and shelter as the colder weather approaches. All sorts of creatures creep or crawl or slide inside a conveniently place leaf-roll. Like these earwigs and, below, those snails.

231109 hide huddle earwigs

Though these leaves will eventually fall to the ground, they’ll be home to a diverse abundance of creatures during the winter months, which is why it’s always best to let some leaves remain on the ground – please don’t be tempted to rake or blow them all away for the sake of tidiness. Nature is not tidy and, given there’s been a 60% decline in flying insects in the UK in the last 20 years (just one example of Nature’s overall decline), leaving leaves in place is the very least we can do.

231109 hide huddle snails

A Black redstart returns

08 Wednesday Nov 2023

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I’ve been trekking across Cardiff Bay regularly over recent weeks to check whether the Black redstarts have returned to their regular spot near Cardiff Port. The fields were empty until last Sunday when I finally spotted this stunning little male. He flew in over my head while I was photographing a Mistle thrush, landed first on one of the piles of rocks in the centre of the field, then fluttered across to the other, to survey his domain. Shortly afterwards, he fluttered down to the ground and I lost him amongst the vegetation and was unable to re-find him. Hopefully, he will stay the winter and, as in previous years, be joined by others of his species.

231108 black redstart

The Redshanks return

07 Tuesday Nov 2023

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I’ve only seen two so far, and both were foraging on the mudbanks outside Cardiff Bay Barrage, so a bit too distant for good photographs of the birds themselves. But I love the texture of those mudbanks, the way they reflect the light, the patterns made by the water moving through their sticky sludge, and the minimalist look of this Redshank grazing where the mud meets the water.

231107 redshank

Leaf grazers: Carcina quercana

06 Monday Nov 2023

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I found these first on Blackthorn when looking for leafminers but couldn’t find any examples on the British Leafminers website, so I posted photos on Twitter and asked my ecologically minded followers ‘what’s this?’.

231106 Carcina quercana on blackthorn

The response was almost instant: ‘Carcina quercana does that on several trees. The silk tube is always against the midrib or a vein and they venture out to graze from there’.

231106 carcina quercana on bramble

Carcina quercana is a lovely little moth and the little silken tubes are created by its larvae. The UK Moths website says ‘The foodplants are various deciduous trees, including oak (Quercus) [hence the quercana, in its name] and beech (Fagus)’, but, as my examples here show, the larvae don’t seem too fussy about what they eat. My photos here, showing both the upper and lower sides of the leaves, are on Blackthorn, Bramble, and Buckthorn.

231106 carcina quercana on buckthorn (1)

And why did I not find this species on the British Leafminers website? Well, strictly speaking, it’s not a miner – the larvae graze on the underside of the leaf when they venture out from their protective silken homes. You might just be able to spot the larva in the photo below.

231106 carcina quercana on buckthorn (2)