22 Friday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, leaves, nature, spring, trees
I didn’t venture far today but I didn’t even have to leave home for this blog post. I figured the recent high winds would’ve blown away all the blossom on my Cherry tree while I was away and I was right, but I hadn’t really considered how much the growth of the new leaves would have progressed. The first photo was taken on 4 March and the second today. What a difference 18 days makes!
21 Thursday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
You may, or may not, have noticed that my daily posts have not been happening for the past eight days. This is because, during a visit with a friend in East Sussex, I was struck down by a nasty virus, which has left me stumbling drunkenly, still suffering vertigo if I move my head too quickly, and generally lacking in energy. I’m slowly coming right, with a couple of short walks out over the past couple of days, and today I made the trek by train – bus – train back home to Wales. It may yet be a couple of weeks until I can manage longer walks but I hope to be back to my daily posts tomorrow. In the meantime, I couldn’t resist looking through my holidays snaps and have updated my Birding 2019 page with the five new birds I saw while away.
07 Thursday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, Being woken by a blackbird singing, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, Blackbird singing, British birds
Actually, my Blackbird’s not been singing in the dead of night but just after six most mornings, and it’s getting earlier as the days grow longer. Soon, I shall probably be cursing it but for now I love being woken up by the dulcet tones of a Blackbird’s song.
05 Tuesday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Coot, Coot nesting, Coot on nest, rubbish around bird's nest, rubbish in waterways
What can I say? Sometimes I get very angry at the human race!
02 Saturday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, plants, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, Alexanders, Angle shades caterpillar, Angle shades larvae, Angle shades moth, British moths, British wildflowers, Phlogophora meticulosa
First I noticed the frass (that’s pooh, to most of us). Then I thought ‘Something fairly big must be in these Alexanders’ flower heads somewhere’. And, sure enough, with a little gentle pulling aside of leaves and flowers, I found the frass creator, very well camouflaged by its light green colouring. And then I thought, ‘There might be more’. And, sure enough, I found three caterpillars on three different plants, and frass on several more plants. These are the larvae of the Angle Shades moth (Phlogophora meticulosa). I thought it seemed rather early for them but my local Butterfly Conservation expert George tells me you can find them pretty much any time of year.
25 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, amphibian, nature, spring
Plenty of sunshine in recent days means lots of light and warmth, which means the Common frogs (Rana temporaria) have been doing their thing in the pond at Lavernock Nature Reserve, and there are now huge clumps of spawn. Some of the little black dots already look to be developing, though, apparently, only 1 in 50 of these eggs will grow to frog-hood. I’ll be keeping an eye on them whenever I pass through this way.
24 Sunday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Mute swan, swan courtship, Swans' courtship dance
As the thick fog began to lift from the lakes at Cosmeston this morning, I caught sight of these two Mute swans engaged in their delightful slow-motion courtship dance, gracefully moving their necks from one side to the other and confirming their connection with quiet grunts and hissing sounds. I didn’t quite capture their necks making the classic heart shape but it was a delight to watch them.
22 Friday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Curlew, Curlew flying, Curlew in flight, Sully, Sully beach
Most of the Curlews that graze on Sully’s playing fields during the winter months seem now to have moved on, motivated by thoughts of breeding to head to the uplands perhaps. I only saw four on the fields this morning through the fog and they soon flew down to the shore. Others were lurking amongst the rocks and seaweeds, though you could only really find them out if they called or when they moved – they are incredibly well camouflaged, even without today’s fog shroud.
21 Thursday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birds building nests, birdwatching, British birds, Coot, coot nest building
As we’ve had a very unseasonal high of 14°C today (this is still meant to be winter remember), it’s not surprising that birds’ thoughts are turning to nest building. Today, at Cosmeston, I saw Magpies and Carrion crows stick-carrying, a Blue tit with moss in its beak perched on the entrance hole of a conveniently placed nest box, and this Coot transporting bits of reed to a secretive location.
19 Tuesday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, British fungi, Conifer mazegill, fungi on conifers, Gloeophyllym separium, mazegill fungi
I first found this fungus last week and went back today to get more photos. It had me flummoxed at first – it looked mazegill-ish but is growing on a handrail so I couldn’t identify the wood and couldn’t match the fungus to anything in my books. Fortunately, there are some extremely knowledgeable fungi experts around who are generous with their assistance and one in particular, Andy Overall, was able to identify this from my photos.
This is Conifer mazegill – its scientific name is a bit of a mouthful, Gloeophyllym separium – and it’s a wood-rotter, feasting, as the name implies, on the dead wood of conifers.
The examples I’ve found are very young and don’t look anything like the stiff brackets they will grow in to, though the Mushroom Expert website has one image of this early stage, and a lot more information if you’re interested.
