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~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: biodiversity

Feathers and fungi at Forest Farm

19 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, fungi, nature, parks, walks

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Blue tit, Blushing bracket, Brittle cinder, coal tit, Elfcups, Forest Farm, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Great tit, Grey heron, Hairy curtain crust, Moorhen, nuthatch, Song thrush, wren

I’ve blogged about the charms of the Forest Farm Nature Reserve many times before but I thought I’d share some of the highlights from last week’s wander …

180319 Forest Farm

Oh, and I will just add that the combination of feathers – me mostly looking upwards – and fungi – eyes down – can be quite difficult. By the end of the day, I felt like one of those nodding dog ornaments you used to see in the rear windows of cars. Still, ’twas a lovely long meandering walk!

180319 Blue tit
180319 Blushing bracket
180319 Brittle cinder
180319 Coal tit
180319 Elfcups
180319 Great tit
180319 Grey heron
180319 Hairy curtain crust
180319 Moorhen
180319 Nuthatch
180319 Song thrush
180319 Wren

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A mini challenge

09 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, flies, galls, leaf mines, Speckled wood, spiders, spotting insects

On Friday I went for a wander around one of my favourite local haunts, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and, while there, I set myself a little challenge. How many critters could I find in one small area, perhaps no more than 2 metres square?

171008 mini challenge

My challenge wasn’t pre-planned: I had seen very little at this point on my walk and was thinking to myself that this was due to autumn and the cooler weather but, when I saw a Speckled wood butterfly at this particular spot – a bank covered with shrubs and small trees – I started wondering how much more there was that I simply wasn’t seeing. So, I stopped and looked harder. There was no poking under grasses or bushes, no sweeping or brushing to encourage movement, just focussing my eyes and ears to really see and hear.

171008 spider (1)
171008 spider (2)
171008 spider (3)

There were, in fact, three Speckled woods – I just hadn’t noticed the other two, plus three different species of spider (the Garden spider was lunching on another critter but it was partly consumed and too tiny to identify), one hoverfly, three species of flies, a gall on Bramble that would’ve been home to the larvae of the tiny gall wasp Diastrophus rubi, and a leaf mine, made by the larva of some unidentified mini-beast. And I’m absolutely sure I didn’t spot everything!

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171008 mini challenge (6)

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Bioblitzing again

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, ladybird, nature

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Tags

Amelia Trust Farm, bioblitz, biodiversity, biological diversity, biological recording

Ten days ago I spent the day bioblitzing with my friend Hilary at Amelia Trust Farm (with their permission, of course). Hilary volunteers there so was keen to see what we might discover around the grounds.

170903 Harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus

The habitats were a mix of woodland, arable fields, and flower and vegetable gardens, though we kept to the various footpaths, only looked at the fields from the fence lines, and didn’t venture far into the vegie patch. As previously, Hilary surveyed the plants and I did everything else. For a late summer’s day, in a site full of noisy families, I thought my total of 59 species was respectable enough. Here are some of the things I spotted …

170903 7-spot ladybird
170903 Common European earwig
170903 Green shieldbug
170903 Honey bees
170903 Hoverfly Eristalis sp
170903 Nettle-tap moth
170903 Pantilius tunicatus
170903 Scorpion fly
170903 Small white

170903 Trametes versicolor Turkeytail

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Square-bashing: SS9073

02 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, molluscs, nature, walks

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological diversity, biological recording, biological records, square-bashing

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (1)

A few days ago I posted about my square-bashing adventure near Llanbeder, in Gwent. Hilary and I have now also square-bashed another under-biodiversity-recorded 1-km square, this time near St Brides Major in Glamorgan.

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (2)

As the seagull flies we were within a kilometre of the sea and the geological substrate was very different, so the habitats we surveyed were more diverse. One public path led us down a heavily wooded driveway to an old house, another ran between the edge of that same woodland and fields sown with cereal crops (and there the hogweed was flowering which greatly improved my insect tally), and the third took us over paddocks of rough unimproved grassland, with patches of low rushes, all bordered by a wild old hedgerow.

170702 Square-bashing SS9073 (3)

Interestingly, this time Hilary’s plant list was about 20% lower than that from our previous square (though she still had around 80 species), whereas my list of everything else was about the same percentage higher (at around 100 species of insects, fungi and lichens, molluscs, etc).

170702 Banded burdock fly
170702 Bombus vestalis
170702 Cheilosia illustrata
170702 Chlorociboria sp Green elfcup
170702 Common marble moth
170702 Dark bush-cricket
170702 Fly
170702 fungi on cow dung Cheilymenia sp
170702 Horsefly
170702 Leptopterna dolabrata
170702 Small whites
170702 Snails and woodlice

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Square-bashing: ST3990

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, nature, walks

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological recording, biological records, SEWBReC, square-bashing

I spent last Friday square-bashing with my friend Hilary, and what a brilliant day we had.

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (1)

For the uninitiated, square-bashing consists of taking a square kilometre that has very few existing biological records and walking the roads, tracks and paths through that square to see what you can find. Each month, my local biodiversity records centre SEWBReC publishes the details of just such a square in the counties they cover, Glamorgan and Gwent, in the hope that keen folks like Hilary and I will rectify the lack of records.

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (2)

Although the term square-bashing is not meant to be taken literally, we did have to bash our way through one field in our square kilometre, where the public footpath was completely overgrown (spot Hilary in the photo below), but on the whole the countryside was beautiful, with rolling farmed fields, old narrow lanes and, the best part, an ancient holloway (more on that in a future post).

170628 ST3990 square-bashing (3)

Hilary’s something of a whizz when it comes to plants so she recorded those and I did everything else – insects, fungi, birds, you name it! As I’m not a whizz at anything, I mostly take lots of photos and then have to work out the IDs when I get home, which takes time but helps me learn. I have just a couple of outstanding queries but reckon my total will come to around 80 and Hilary has about 90 plants on her list, so it was a very good result indeed. Here are some of my finds – can you identify them?

170628 Beechmast candlesnuff Xylaria carpophila
170628 Common marble Celypha lacunana
170628 Cranefly Ptychoptera sp
170628 Eriophyes similis Gall mite
170628 Harlequin ladybird larva Harmonia axyridis
170628 Hawthorn shieldbug Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale
170628 Knot grass larva Acronicta rumicis
170628 Lagria hirta
170628 Meadow brown Maniola jurtina
170628 Pollen beetles Meligethes sp
170628 Snipe fly Rhagio tringarius
170628 Yellow dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria

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More from Merthyr Mawr

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

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Tags

biodiversity, biological diversity, Blood bee, Common Stork's-bill, Glamorgan Fungus Group, Green dock beetle, Merthyr Mawr National Nature Reserve, Micropterix calthella, Navelwort, Poplar leaf beetle, Red-headed Cardinal beetle

As I wrote yesterday, with very little fungi to be found our Glamorgan Fungus Group foray on Saturday developed into a more general nature ramble. I’m afraid I wasn’t writing down the names of all the various critters and plants we saw so I can’t identify everything in these photos but I can name some.

170509 (2) Pyrochroa serraticornis Red-headed Cardinal beetle
170509 (3) Centipede
170509 (4) Eggs of Gastrophysa viridula Green dock beetle
170509 (5) Micropterix calthella moths
170509 (6) Erodium cicutarium Common Stork's-bill
170509 (7) Two species of snails
170509 (8) Umbilicus rupestris Wall pennywort or Navelwort
170509 (9) Chrysomela populi Poplar leaf beetle
170509 (10) Sphecodes sp Blood bee

The first is a Red-headed cardinal beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis), a very pretty beetle though this one wouldn’t keep still for me. The centipede was the same and I’m afraid I don’t remember its name, though I was told it’s not particularly common. It tickled! I think the little yellow dots are the eggs of the Green dock beetle (Gastrophysa viridula) as we saw a pair mating nearby. The tiny moths on the buttercup flower are Micropterix calthella. The plant with the pink flower is one I actually remembered from my botany walk on Thursday – a miracle! It’s Common Stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium). Then we have two different species of snail cosying up together. Once again, I was told the names but didn’t write them down and have forgotten (must do better next time!). This very pretty plant was a new one for me and it has two common names, so you might know it either as Wall pennywort or Navelwort (scientific name Umbilicus rupestris). Next is another beetle, this time a Poplar leaf beetle (Chrysomela populi). It was a gorgeous wee thing, with metallic green thorax and dark red body, almost like an oversized ladybird. And, last but not least, was this rather angry Blood bee (Sphecodes sp.). It was trying to lay its eggs in the holes of mining bees when it was netted and potted up for a quick close-up look.

170509 (1) Millipede Pill bug Slug

My favourite moment of the day, though, was when I turned over this log. I particularly loved the little grouping of millipede, pill-bug and slug but these were only a few of the various creatures to be seen. It was just nice to see such biodiversity co-existing happily together. A lesson for us all, I think.

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Grangemoor Park: a first look

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, lichen, nature, parks, spring, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, Cardiff parks, Grangemoor Park, old rubbish tip, Penarth Moors, River Ely, signs of spring

I had my first wander around Grangemoor Park yesterday and I’ll definitely be going back, though perhaps when it’s a little drier underfoot. With an extensive area of grass and scrub that rises up to two central mounds (from which you get quite good 360-degree views over Cardiff), this land wasn’t always a park. You have only to look at old maps to see that, once upon a time, the River Ely meandered through Penarth Moors here but, once the river was realigned, the hollows thus created were used as one of Cardiff’s rubbish tips. When the tip was full, Cardiff Council had a load of underground drains built, as well as ventilation pipes to allow the methane to escape, covered the lot with tons of clay – hence the very soggy ground, edged it all around with a solid stone wall, and changed its designation to a park in 2000.

170311 Grangemoor (1)
170311 Grangemoor (2)
170311 Grangemoor (3)
170311 Grangemoor (4)
170311 Grangemoor (5)
170311 Grangemoor (6)

That may sound like a sad history but, according to locals, the park now hosts quite a broad range of flora and fauna, and I certainly saw many of the stirrings of Spring. There were bumblebees and flies, a butterfly and a ladybird, masses of primroses almost hidden under bushes, golden coltsfoot and dandelions in bloom all around and horsetail pushing through everywhere, as well as incredibly vibrant lichens and a healthy growth of Oak curtain crust fungi. I will be going back!

170311 Grangemoor (7)
170311 Grangemoor (8)
170311 Grangemoor (9)
170311 Grangemoor (10)
170311 Grangemoor (11)
170311 Grangemoor (12)

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An under-recorded square kilometre

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological diversity, biological recording, biological records, SEWBReC

After our morning’s biodiversity recording session at Porthkerry and a rather scrummy pub lunch, our SEWBReC team took up the challenge of how many species we could discover in a one-kilometre square that borders Cardiff Airport, a square where only 15 species of anything had previously been recorded. Well, even a desert has more life in it than that, and we had fields and country lanes edged with hedgerows to explore so off we set.

161007-rhoose-bioblitz-2

Some of the hedgerows had recently been savagely trimmed and, though sunny, it was blowing a gale so conditions weren’t exactly perfect. But we are a dedicated team! We scanned and we scoured, we probed and we combed, we turned over and peered under, we inspected and we scrutinised. And at the end of two hours we had a preliminary list of 85 species, with some uncertainties to be verified, some ambiguities to be resolved and some experts to be consulted. What a thoroughly enjoyable, eminently satisfying day it was!

Each month SEWBReC provides maps and information about poorly recorded 1km squares in south east Wales, in the hope of filling in the gaps in their maps. If you live in the area, or even if you’re just visiting, you can help fill those gaps. See here for more information.

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161007-rhoose-bioblitz-5
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161007-rhoose-bioblitz-7
161007-rhoose-bioblitz-8
161007-rhoose-bioblitz-9

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Bioblitzing at Porthkerry Country Park

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, parks

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biological recording, biological recording centre, biological records, Mary Gillham Archive Project, Porthkerry Country Park, SEWBReC

As I volunteer on the Mary Gillham Archive Project, which is hosted by SEWBReC (the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre), I got invited along to SEWBReC’s staff outing yesterday. And what do records centre staff do for a staff outing? Why we go looking for more biodiversity records, of course! I was in my element, and it was so nice being with like-minded people who also spend a lot of time standing and staring at bushes and trees, and can take an hour to progress a hundred metres. For once, I wasn’t the ‘strange’ one!
161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-5161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-3

We spent the morning by the seaside at Porthkerry Country Park, on the south Wales coast near Barry, a first visit for me to this beautiful place, which ‘contains 220 acres of woodland and meadows in a sheltered valley that leads to a pebble beach and spectacular cliffs’. We barely scratched the surface, so I will certainly be heading back to explore further. Our list of species found currently stands at 93 but we have a few more to check so I feel sure we’ll push our total over the 100 mark before we’re finished. The sun shone on the recording team at Porthkerry!

161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-14
161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-7
161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-11
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161006-porthkerry-bioblitz-2

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Welsh biodiversity: Heath Park

12 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

biodiversity, biological diversity, Heath Park, Wales Biodiversity Week

This is the last, but by no means least, day of Wales Biodiversity Week, and today we’re checking out the biodiversity of another of my locals, Heath Park.

160612 heath park (1)

Once upon a time (in the 1830s), the Lewis family built a great mansion (Heath House) on this land (since demolished – where the Miniature Railway and neighbouring carpark are now) and the present park was part of their estate (you can read more here). Today, the 37-hectare site is owned by Cardiff Council, and contains sports fields, courts and playgrounds, a large carpark (also useful for visitors to neighbouring Heath Hospital), large fields for picnics and dog-walking, a mature woodland and two ponds.

160612 heath park (2)

Part of the woodland is very damp so, as you can see from my photos, it’s ideal for fungi, even in the summer months. And there is also a rather smelly stream, the Nant-y-Wedal, which had a surprising abundance of wildlife amongst the vegetation adorning its banks. Heath Park was an unexpected biodiversity hot spot, so we have a bumper number of photographs which seems a fitting way to close Wales Biodiversity Week for 2016.

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160612 heath park (5)
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160612 heath park (14)
160612 heath park (15)
160612 heath park (16)
160612 heath park (17)

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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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