01 Monday Jul 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Some of the beautiful Bee orchids in my local wild places are starting to go over now, punished perhaps by the extreme June heat we’ve been experiencing. So, before they disappear completely for another year, I thought I’d share some of their wonderfully cheery, smiling faces. No two are the same.
30 Sunday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, aberrant butterfly, aberrant Meadow brown, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Meadow Brown, pathological aberration
I feel like I should be apologising for featuring butterflies three days in a row but this little butterfly is so interesting that I just had to share it. There are a ton of Meadow browns flitting around the wildflower fields at Cosmeston right now and they mostly look like this – or, at least, the females do.
So, I think you can see why the butterfly in this next photo caught my eye. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a really clear shot of it, as it kept flying further into the flowers and I didn’t want to trample them, but you get the idea. Thanks to a tweet from UK Butterflies, I now know “This aberration is referred to as ‘pathological’, where wing scales fail to pigment – thought to be caused by some type of damage (physical or chemical) to the pupa. Asymmetrical examples are known too where only 1 wing is affected.” Isn’t it fascinating?
26 Wednesday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, Black-tailed skimmer, British dragonflies, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, dragonflies, dragonfly
I was just saying to someone the other day that I haven’t been seeing many dragonflies this year and what happens? The very next time I go walking at Cosmeston, I see several.
These two Black-tailed skimmers were the most obliging, as they tend to station themselves along the pathways through the wildflower fields, rising up as you get near them and then re-settling a little further along the path. If you watch where they land and you’re slow and quiet as you approach, you can get quite near them.
25 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks
On April Fool’s day I reported on the hatching of five Moorhen chicks in one of the ponds at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. Nearly two months on, I’m delighted to report that all five of those chicks are still alive and thriving, and they now have a brand new bunch of five siblings, their parents’ second brood of the year. Raising them is a real family affair, as the older siblings help to feed and look after their little brothers and sisters. And there’s still time for the mum and dad to have yet another brood. I’ll be watching.
24 Monday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, Bittern, Black-tailed godwit, British birds, Cuckoo, Great white egret, Grey heron, Hobby, Marsh harrier, RSPB Ham Wall, Shapwick Heath, Whitethroat
You’re just going to have to believe me when I tell you that the photo on the left below is of a Cuckoo in a tree, and the photo on the right is of a Hobby in the same tree four minutes later.
Today’s photos were taken during yesterday’s Glamorgan Bird Club field trip to RSPB Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath on the Somerset Levels, a very watery place, as you can imagine, and one where, depending on the time of year, you’re almost guaranteed to see Marsh harriers, Bitterns, Great white and Little egrets. So, here they are, plus a couple of extras. It was a grand day out, as usual on these birding field trips.
A Grey heron hunts in one of the lush reens …
The obligatory blurry bittern fly-past shot.
The equally obligatory distant Marsh harrier shot … but I did manage to get two in one frame.
Great white egrets aplenty …
Black-tailed godwits and a couple of Lapwings doing a turn of the pond. And “Look at me! Look at me!” called the handsome little Whitethroat, so we did.
23 Sunday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature
I’m out on a birding trip today and may be home late so here’s a little something I prepared earlier on the gorgeous Foxgloves that I’ve been spotting, growing at the edges of train tracks heading up the Welsh Valleys, and under trees, alongside hedgerows and amongst the bracken at Aberbargoed Grasslands. Foxy places perhaps? Their liking for the places frequented by foxes is the only reason Richard Mabey comes up with in my Flora Britannica for their Foxglove name. It’s a mystery!
22 Saturday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, nature, wildflowers
Tags
#365DaysWild, British wildflowers, Cathays Cemetery, Fox and cubs, Grim the collier, orange hawkweed, wildflowers
The Orange hawkweed (also known as Fox-and-cubs and Grim the collier) was putting on a magnificent display in Cathays Cemetery today.
So, I thought I’d better grab some photos because this is a cemetery that is (mis)managed by the ‘neat and tidy’ brigade, those who place value in strimming everything to within an inch of its life rather than in the beauty of the wildflowers and the food they provide to insects.
21 Friday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, fritillaries, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Summer solstice
My mis-spelling of the word fritillaries is deliberate – the darn things never keep still. They’re either constantly flitting from place to place at a great rate of knots or, when they do settle, they either disappear into the long grass so you can’t find them or they perch on a flower to refuel but never stop flapping their wings for a moment.
Those are my excuses for the Small pearl-bordered fritillaries in today’s photos being out of focus and/or obscured by blades of grass!
Still, I spent a glorious few hours with them, and their cousins the Marsh fritillaries, at Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve. A little patience was required, as huge menacing clouds kept rolling over but, in the gaps between, when the sun came out, so did the butterflies.
It was a magical way to spend the summer solstice!
20 Thursday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
I’m not sure what this Jay was up to, sitting still on the grass fairly close to a busy path. Its wing weren’t spread so it wasn’t sunning itself or anting, and it didn’t seem to be distressed so I don’t think it had been attacked by anything. It also didn’t look like a particularly young bird, but maybe it was and was just waiting for its parents to feed it. Whatever the truth of the matter, it had gone by the time I walked back this way a couple of hours later.
19 Wednesday Jun 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, gull chicks, gull nest among chimney pots, Lesser black-backed gull, urban gull nest
It’s time for an update on the Lesser black-backed gulls who are rearing their brood among the chimney pots on a house in the next street to mine.
First off, though I thought initially that there were only two, there are, in fact, three chicks, though one is significantly bigger than the other two and much more aggressive when it comes to demanding food from its parents.
I was a little worried that all the recent rain might have caused them problems as the parents seem to leave them on their own a lot but they all look reasonably healthy so far (they’re at least two weeks old now).
It must take a lot of effort from the parents to keep their hunger satisfied – if it ever is. I spotted one of the parents with a long bit of fish – young eel? – hanging out of its mouth the other day. I bet that soon got gobbled up when it was later regurgitated. Another progress report soon!
earthstar 
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