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earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: #7DaysofWildChristmas

Everything has beauty

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature, winter

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

#7DaysofWildChristmas, beauty is everywhere, everything has beauty

181231 beauty is everywhere (1)

It was Confucius, I believe, who said ‘Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it’. Well, today, on the last day of my #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge and the last day of 2018, I bring you incontrovertible proof that beauty can be found anywhere. And I’m fairly positive not many people would have spotted this particular piece of gorgeousness.

181231 beauty is everywhere (2)
181231 beauty is everywhere (3)

Can you guess what it is?

181231 beauty is everywhere (4)

Need a clue? I was walking through the meadows at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park when I spotted this in the grass.

181231 beauty is everywhere (5)

It’s … mould growing on rabbit pooh! I presume the liquid droplets are dew rather than something that’s been produced by the mould … or the pooh, but I may be wrong about that. I think you will agree, however, that this is truly a beautiful thing to behold.

181231 beauty is everywhere (6)

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New Year Plant Hunt

30 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers, winter

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

#7DaysofWildChristmas, #NewYearPlantHunt, British flora, New Year Plant Hunt, wildflowers in bloom, winter-blooming wildflowers

From 29 December to 1 January don’t be surprised if you see people taking photos of blooming wildflowers, puzzling over pictures in ID books, scratching their heads over the differences between one plant species and another. We are the New Year Plant Hunters, doing our best to find and identify as many wildflowers in bloom as possible throughout Britain to help the BSBI (Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) keep track of what’s happening in the botanical world around us. And you can join in. Go for a walk, list what you find and submit your list on the BSBI website. So, for day 6 of my #7DaysofWildChristmas, I took myself on a walk around Penarth and was delighted to find these 27 species in bloom.

181230 bittercress sp
181230 black nightshade
181230 bramble
181230 buttercup sp
181230 cat's-ear
181230 common knapweed
181230 common ragwort
181230 daisy
181230 dove's-foot crane's-bill
181230 forget-me-not
181230 gorse
181230 groundsel
181230 herb robert
181230 ivy-leaved crowfoot
181230 mallow sp
181230 mayweed maybe
181230 radish sp
181230 red clover
181230 red dead-nettle
181230 red valerian
181230 shepherd's purse
181230 sow thistle
181230 spurge sp
181230 thistle sp
181230 unknown umbellifer
181230 winter heliotrope
181230 yarrow

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Under the log

29 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, molluscs, nature, slugs, winter

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#7DaysofWildChristmas, brain fungi, Catinella olivacea, Cogan Wood, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, earthworms, Harvestman, orange slime, slugs, snails, turning over logs, woodlice

The weather was back to grey and drizzly again today so I donned my wet weather gear and headed to Cogan Wood to spend part of day 5 of my #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge turning over a few rotten logs and branches. And what did I find lurking there?

Woodlice; snails both long and rotund; earthworms; luscious balls of orange slime; tiny globular balls that looked like the eggs of something or other; pale little lumps of White or Crystal brain fungi; slugs brown and black; a stripey legged Harvestman; miniscule white mushrooms adorned with drops of water; a young centipede or millipede – I can never be quite sure which is which; dark little cup fungi, black with olive rims (Catinella olivacea) – very pleased with that find; and various other things, the photographs of which were either out of focus or too grainy due to the poor light conditions in the woodland. There’s nothing quite like getting wild and muddy – it was fun!

181229 under the log (11)

181229 under the log (1)
181229 under the log (2)
181229 under the log (3)
181229 under the log (4)
181229 under the log (5)
181229 under the log (6)
181229 under the log (7)
181229 under the log (8)
181229 under the log (9)
181229 under the log (10)

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Along the Ely

28 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, walks

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#7DaysofWildChristmas, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay, Ely embankment, Redshank, River Ely, Turnstone

Today, on day 4 of the #7DaysofWildChristmas challenge, my search for the wild took me down to the river – the River Ely, that is – where the river flows in to Cardiff Bay and where the embankment is now edged with tall apartment blocks and where one half of the river is a marina, home to millions of pounds of water craft. It’s a path I walk often but today I was particularly delighted to see my favourite dumpy little waterbirds, the Turnstones, had returned – eleven of them – and they’d brought a friend along, a handsome Redshank that was trying uneasily to snooze while the Turnstones prospected for food to and fro.

181228 turnstones (1)
181228 turnstones (2)181228 turnstone and redshank (1)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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