02 Thursday Oct 2025
Tags
7-spot ladybird, autumn colour, Black Bryony berries, blackberries, Common Darter, Field rose hips, Guelder rose berries, Hawthorn berries, red berries, red colour in nature, Robin's pincushion
When I’m out walking at the moment, it seems that everywhere I look, I see red …
I see red
I see red
I see red
I see re-e-ed
10 Sunday Nov 2024
Posted in autumn, plants, wildflowers
This post was prompted by my bumping in to ‘The Blackberry man’ during yesterday’s walk. I don’t know his name; he’s just a random stranger I got talking to two winters ago during a walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. I was picking a few Blackberries to eat, he was filling a small container to take home for his family. He’s an older man, originally from a Middle Eastern country, and doesn’t have great English, but we got by. And now, whenever we see each other at the park, we stop and chat for a few minutes.
Seeing him led me to look more closely at the Brambles. The majority of plants had already flowered, produced berries and the fruit that hadn’t been eaten had gone to seed but, scattered here and there amongst the plants, there were still a few flowers, and a few immature and ripe berries.
I also couldn’t help but admire the exceptional colour variations and intensity of colour displayed by the Bramble leaves as autumn progresses. So, thank you Blackberry man, for reminding me to look more closely at these often-overlooked plants.
25 Monday Jul 2022
Yesterday’s first tasting of this season’s blackberries nearly ended in disaster – not for me, but for this teeny weeny Dock bug nymph that was hiding on the far side of a berry but managed to scurry quickly on to my hand before I ate it. The berry was still a bit sour but at least it wasn’t crunchy!
*Note to self: always inspect the berries before eating them.
22 Wednesday Sep 2021
Soon, these gorgeous Commas will be looking for places to hibernate.
But first they need to stock up on nectar, to increase their energy reserves to help them survive the cold winter months.
Brambles are perfect, their berries plentiful, widespread, easily accessible, juicy, delicious.
And, when the berries are very ripe and begin to ferment, butterflies like these Commas can become more than a little tipsy as they drink.
04 Friday Sep 2020
Tags
autumn berries, birding, birdwatching, blackberries, bramble, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Pheasant, pheasant eating blackberries
A rustle of vegetation … an eye … who’s this lurking behind the ‘snipe paddock’ fence at Cosmeston?
A female Pheasant? A common enough bird in the local countryside but not normally seen here in this dog-full park. She has quite short tail feathers and she’s not too bothered about my presence so I presume she’s a juvenile.
It seems she’s quite partial to blackberries.
Are there more of those delicious treats?
Aha, yes, another ripe one.
And, after scoffing those couple of berries, she wanders off in search of more.
29 Saturday Aug 2020
I don’t know about you but, when I’m out walking at this time of year, I’m often tempted to pluck and devour one of the luscious-looking blackberries growing on the bramble-covered fences and hedgerows.
Well, not any more. Not now I’ve seen how many flies like to suck at them and run their dirty little feet all over them. Just look at all those fly bottoms!
And let’s not even mention the very real possibility of getting stung by a wasp that’s jealously guarding ‘its’ berries. From now on, the berries are all for the beasties!
11 Wednesday Sep 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, autumn, insects, nature, plants
Tags
#365DaysWild, autumn fruit, blackberries, bramble, British butterflies, butterfly, Red Admiral, Red admiral on bramble
I think everyone would agree that blackberries, the fruit of the bramble bush, are delicious. I’m not one of those people who risks the almost obligatory scratches to go blackberrying at this time of year – I prefer to leave them to the birds and minibeasts. But, at Cosmeston yesterday, I’d been walking longer than I anticipated and my stomach was rumbling so I thought I’d grab a few to keep me going.
Well, if looks could kill, I would never have made it home because these Red admiral butterflies were absolutely certain the blackberries belonged to them. And they weren’t going to relent, letting me get my hand really close to them without moving a millimetre. One even flew out and ‘buzzed’ me before re-settling on its chosen fruit. I got the message and left them to their feast.
earthstar 
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