22 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in nature, insects, 365DaysWildin2019
Tags
Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, damselfly, damselflies, Pyrrhosoma nymphula, Large Red damselfly, Cosmeston, British damselflies, #365DaysWild
Our warm Easter weekend weather has certainly brought out the critters. Today I spotted my first damselfly of 2019, this lovely Large Red (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). Woot!
21 Sunday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature
Tags
#365DaysWild, Acrocephalus scirpaceus, birding, birdwatching, British birds, British warblers, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Reed warbler
There are thirteen species of warbler that regularly breed in Britain and I find them some of the trickiest to identify as several are typically LBJs, little brown jobs.
The Reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) is, I think, one of the easier, partly because of its recognisable warble and partly because it lives up to its name by living almost exclusively in reeds.
But it’s an elusive little bird so I’ve never managed to get clear photos of it … until today, when this little beauty was so intent on finding food that I was able to watch it for over ten minutes. Just perfect!
12 Friday Apr 2019
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, colour-ringed gull, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Flat Holm Island, Larus fuscus, Lesser black-backed gull, movements of gulls
I have been out wandering today but, rather than sharing some photos from that, I want, instead, to share this information I’ve received about a ringed bird I reported. The bird is a Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), which I spotted at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on 1 April and reported through the European Colour-ring Birding website.
It’s a common enough bird, of course, and, as you can see from the list of sightings below, it seems to spend most of its time flying back and forth between Flat Holm Island and Cosmeston, except in November 2017, when it obviously fancied some time in warmer climes. I can’t help but wonder whether that was a one-off trip or whether it just hasn’t been spotted and reported on its other European sojourns.
08/07/12 FLAT HOLM ISLAND, Cardiff
02/09/12 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 56 days)
13/10/12 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 97 days)
12/06/14 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 1 yr 339days)
24/08/14 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 2 yrs 47days)
14/09/14 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 2 yrs 68days)
14/09/14 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 2 yrs 68days)
26/07/15 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 18days)
06/09/15 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 60days)
03/04/16 FLAT HOLM ISLAND, Cardiff (3 yrs 270days)
24/04/16 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 291days)
29/04/16 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 296days)
04/05/16 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 301days)
02/07/16 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 3 yrs 360days)
21/08/16 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 4 yrs 44days)
13/05/17 FLAT HOLM ISLAND, Cardiff (4 yrs 309days)
14/05/17 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 4 yrs 310days)
04/11/17 Costa da Caparica, Setúbal, Portugal (1493 km, SSW, 5 yrs)
07/07/18 FLAT HOLM ISLAND, Cardiff (5 yrs 364days)
01/04/19 Cosmeston Park, Cardiff (23 km, NNW, 6 yrs 267days)
11 Thursday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, reptiles
Tags
#365DaysWild, Anguis fragilis, British reptiles, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, refugia, slow-worm
I was walking with my friend Sharon around Cosmeston today when we spied a refugia and couldn’t resist having a look underneath. This is what we found … but what is going on?
These are Slow-worms (Anguis fragilis), and there look to be two of them intertwined. We assumed they were mating but I’ve been reading that they don’t usually mate until May, and that males and females differ in colour and appearance – these appear to be two females. And what’s with the ants? Are they trying to attack the Slow-worms, irritate them so that they move away?
Answers on a postcard … or in the comments below. Thanks, and if/when I find out more, I’ll update this post.
p.s. I’ve been told by a friend that if one Slow-worm finds a nice warm place to bask, others will join it – so just friends enjoying the warmth together, I think. And the ants don’t like them ’cause the Slow-worms will eat their pupae but the ants can’t harm the Slow-worms.
01 Monday Apr 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, baby birds, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Moorhen, Moorhen chicks
At 9am this morning, one of these Moorhen parents was still sitting on five eggs. By the time I got to the pond at 11.30 there were five newly hatched little bundles of fluff, two of which were already venturing out of the nest. And Mum and Dad were already mating, in preparation for their next brood. If these are the same Moorhens that bred at this site last year, they had three broods in total, I think, and those born first were helping the parents feed the subsequent generations. I’ll be keeping an eye on what happens this year.
27 Wednesday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, insects, nature, spring, wildflowers
Tags
Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, primrose, Scutellinia fungi, Small tortoiseshell, violets
Today I went to Cosmeston for the first time in a few weeks and I was delighted to find its west paddock tinged a delicate shade of purple from all the violets currently in flower. I don’t remember it being so obvious in previous years. Along the edges of the paddock, primroses were in bloom, adding their soft buttery yellow to the colour mix.
While looking more closely at the flowers, I noticed tiny circles of red dotting the soil – a species of Scutellinia fungi I’m guessing, but working out which species requires some serious microscope work.
And then along flew my first Small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year to add its vibrant hues to the kaleidoscope of colour in the paddock. Just perfect!
11 Monday Mar 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, fungi, nature
Tags
British fungi, Common jellyspot, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Dacrymyces stillatus, jellyspot fungus, orange jellyspot
According to Pat O’Reilly’s brilliant First Nature website, the scientific name for Common jellyspot, which is Dacrymyces stillatus, is ‘named from Dacry- meaning a tear (as in weeping) and –myces meaning fungus, while the specific epithet stillatus means poured or dripped. Hence Dacrymyces stillatus means teardrop-like fungi that look as though they have dripped on to the substrate.’ In this particular case the substrate is a series of fence posts at Cosmeston, where I’ve seen this jellyspot growing for several months now.
05 Tuesday Feb 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Common Gull, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, gulls, identifying gulls
I’m sure I’m gaining a reputation as ‘The woman who stares at gulls’. I don’t think of myself as a larophile, a gull-worshipper – I’d just like to become better at identifying them. With their annually changing plumages, the juveniles are the most difficult; generally, the adult gulls are easier, if you can get a good look at them. Today, at Cosmeston, while staring at the gulls as usual, I actually found something different, not one of the usual Black-headed gulls or Lesser black-backed gulls or Herring gulls, but this lovely Common gull. Fortunately, it was close to the shoreline so it was easy to pick out its distinctive bill and head shape and colouring. A very pretty little gull!
24 Thursday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Green woodpecker, yaffle, Yaffling woodpecker
It was a woodpecker-kind of day at Cosmeston today. No sooner had I arrived and cast my eye (and bins) up towards the chirping-finch-filled trees above my head than I spotted a Great spotted woodpecker. It wasn’t drumming but was studiously pounding away at the tree trunk it was on – preliminary hole excavation work perhaps.
Then, as I headed on along the path, I heard this Green woodpecker yaffling in the neighbouring field. A reasonably tall hedge separated us so I was able to get quite close for photos and to watch it prospecting for ants and other insects in the damp ground. I wonder if the winter dampness means its prey is further down in the soil – it was certainly probing quite deeply.
22 Tuesday Jan 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature, winter
Today I went looking for the Siskin that were seen at Cosmeston on Sunday (and had been heard by another birder earlier in the month). They’re not birds I’m familiar with as they’re not common locally and I’ve only seen them a couple of times when I’ve been on bird club trips (oh, and once very high in the trees at Forest Farm). My heart skipped a beat when I heard a flock of Goldfinches in the trees ahead of me (the Siskin were associating with Goldfinches on Sunday) and saw a few flashes of yellow and green in the birds with them. Unfortunately, they weren’t Siskin but Greenfinches – I’m not complaining though, as Greenfinches are also birds I don’t see very often.
