50/365 Conifer mazegill

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature

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#365DaysWild, British fungi, Conifer mazegill, fungi on conifers, Gloeophyllum sepiarium, 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.

190219 conifer mazegill (3)

This is Conifer mazegill – its scientific name is a bit of a mouthful, Gloeophyllum sepiarium – and it’s a wood-rotter, feasting, as the name implies, on the dead wood of conifers.

190219 conifer mazegill (2)

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.

190219 conifer mazegill (1)

48/365 Prints in the mud

17 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, animals, mammal, nature

≈ 4 Comments

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#365DaysWild, British mammals, Otter, Otter paw prints, Otter prints in mud, prints in mud

190217 mud prints (2)

Today has been another fabulous day out with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, enjoying the magnificent Welsh countryside and marvelling at all its amazing birds – and I’ll report on that in tomorrow’s blog post – but, for me, the most exciting thing today was these prints in the mud under a bridge near Dryslwyn. I think these are the closest I’ve yet been to a live Otter!

190217 mud prints (1)

47/365 Cherry blossom

16 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, spring, trees

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#365DaysWild, blossom, Cherry blossom, Cherry tree, Spring blossom

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Today was a chores day so I just had a little tootle around my local haunts. But my photo was taken right outside my house. As a first-floor-flat dweller, I don’t have a garden but the tiny stone-filled front yard of my building has a magnificent Cherry tree, which fills half the view from my living room window and brings me great joy throughout the year. I have been watching its buds swell fatter and fatter until, finally, today the first several of its blossoms have opened.

45/365 Sweet heart

14 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature

≈ 6 Comments

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#365DaysWild, British fungi, elfcup fungi, red elfcup, Scarlet elfcup

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To be honest, I’m not one to get excited about days like today – too much commercial hype and money wasted on needless rubbish. But, when I spotted this almost-heart-shaped Scarlet elfcup, I thought I would at least share a little love for Nature from Nature.

44/365 Bee-lieve it or not

13 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

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#365DaysWild, Alexanders, first bee of the year, Smyrnium olusatrum, Spring is in the air

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Today has been incredibly mild and Spring-like, and the warmer temperatures encouraged the birds to sit singing on tree tops, flowers to open (the flowers in this photo are Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum – the first I’ve seen open this year), and lapping up the pollen from those flowers was my first bee of 2019.

41/365 Oak trees

10 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, trees

≈ 6 Comments

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#365DaysWild, Oak, oak tree, Victoria Square Penarth, winter trees

190210 oak trees

I’ve been trying to find out how old these Oak trees are but haven’t managed it … yet. They grow on one side of the green that surrounds All Saints Church in Penarth’s Victoria Square. I did discover that the church itself dates originally from 1891, though it had to be rebuilt after being reduced to a burnt-out shell when 100 high explosives and 5000 incendiaries were dropped on Penarth during a bombing raid by the German Luftwaffe on 4 March 1941. I don’t know if the trees were also damaged in that bombing or whether they date from the 1890s … or even earlier. Whatever their age, they are magnificent.

40/365 A rose by any other name?

09 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, lichen, nature

≈ 3 Comments

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#365DaysWild, British lichens, Caloplaca decipiens, Caloplaca species, lichen on gravestone, Penarth graveyard, St Augustine's Church

In this case, though, my rose is not a rose but a lichen that I thought looked a lot like the outline of a rose – my warped imagination perhaps, but pretty nonetheless. I spotted this on a gravestone during a wander around the graveyard that surrounds St Augustine’s Church here in Penarth. I presume it’s one of the Caloplaca species of lichen, possibly Caloplaca decipiens, but many of this species seem to look alike and I am not at all skilled in identifying lichens.

190209 Caloplaca lichen

35/365 Little egret

04 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, seaside, winter

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#365DaysWild, Barry, Barry Old Harbour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Little egret

After the rain and low cloud cleared late morning, I headed to the seaside for the afternoon, to Barry, a short train ride west along the south Wales coast. Despite the chilly wind blowing in off the sea, the day was glorious and I walked around the Knap, the Old Harbour, the beach at Barry Island and then along the old docks to catch the train home. The tide was out so it was a good time to check the now-silted-up Old Harbour for birds and I was delighted to spot this Little egret puddling about in one of the channels, trying to stir up something for its lunch. Such an elegant bird.

190204 little egret

34/365 Beachcombing

03 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, geology, molluscs, nature, seaside

≈ 2 Comments

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#365DaysWild, beach fossick, beachcombing, fossilised seashell, fossils, Penarth Head, seashell

As part of this morning’s local meander, I went for a beachcomb at the base of the cliffs at Penarth Head – not too close to those cliffs as they’re continually shedding small stones and occasional larger boulders but it’s safe enough nearer the water’s edge when the tide’s going out. I didn’t linger long as people arrived to run their dogs, sending sand and stones everywhere. However, I did find this little beauty before they arrived – a fossilised seashell I think.

p.s. My fab Facebook friend Mark says that the only ‘Jurassic bivalve with that pattern in my books is something called Oxytoma inequivalvis’, so now we have a name. Thanks, Mark.

190203 fossil

32/365 Redwings

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter

≈ 6 Comments

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#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Redwing, Victoria Square Penarth

190201 redwing

With its wide diversity of trees young and old, Victoria Square is home to a good number of birds. Today I spotted Blue and Great tits, Nuthatches, a Treecreeper and two Goldcrests, Crows and Jackdaws, Blackbirds and Song thrushes, a Greenfinch calling from a tree top, and several of these beautiful Redwings energetically turning leaves in the never-ending search for food. I sprinkled some seed about in the less snowy places close to trees and left them to it.