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~ a celebration of nature

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Tag Archives: Grangemoor Park

350/366 S s s s … Siskin

15 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, trees, winter

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Tags

Alder, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Carduelis spinus, Grangemoor Park, Siskin, Siskin feeding on Alder cones

Siskin (Carduelis spinus) are not finches I see very often so, when I heard their high-pitched whistles at Grangemoor Park last Saturday, I immediately looked up to try to spot them.

201215 siskin (1)

And there they were, perhaps six birds, feeding on Alder cones, high above me. There were other trees in my sightline and the light was shocking so it wasn’t easy to watch or photograph them.

201215 siskin (2)

Still, I lingered on the muddy path for 20 minutes or so, enjoying their upside-down feeding techniques, listening to their noisy interaction, enjoying the fleeting glints of yellow when the sun lit their feathers. What a treat!

201215 siskin (3)

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229/366 More peas please

16 Sunday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, wildflowers

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Black medick, British wildflowers, Common restharrow, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Ervilla hirsuta, Grangemoor Park, Hairy tare, Medicago lupulina, Ononis repens, Pea plant family

You’ll recall that a couple of weeks ago we had some members of the Pea family (A Pod of Peas, 26 July) – well, here are another three members of that extensive kin group.

Common restharrow (Ononis repens)
The name ‘restharrow’ comes from the fact that this wildflower’s thick long roots were ‘tough enough to stop a horse-drawn harrow in its tracks’ (Flora Britannica) and that esteemed publication also notes that those roots could be chewed, with a taste like liquorice. According to the Plantlife website, the plant’s shoots also had culinary uses: they could be boiled as a vegetable or eaten in salads.

200809 common restharrow (2)
200809 common restharrow (1)

200809 common restharrow (3)

Hairy tare (Ervilla hirsuta)
There’s an abundance of this little plant curling and winding itself through the rough grassland and wildflower fields at Grangemoor Park. As its flowers are rather small, it’s easy to miss how lovely they are but they’re definitely worth a closer look, anytime from May to August.

200816 hairy tare (3)200816 hairy tare (4)

Black medick (Medicago lupulina)
This is a plant I often see along the edges of roads but it’s also particularly numerous in one of the wildflower fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. The First Nature website explains its scientific name thus:
‘The genus name Medicago refers to the region of Iran known as Media, where this plant was thought to have originated. The specific epithet lupulina means “wolf-like” – a reference to the flowers of the hop Humulus lupulus, which its inflorescence resembles.’

200816 black meddick (2)
200816 black meddick (4)

200816 black meddick (1)

 

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218/366 Vervain

05 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Grangemoor Park, The Chief Herb, The Herb, Verbena officinalis, Vervain, wildflower

I’ve been trying, very slowly, to learn the names of more wildflowers so, when I couldn’t put a name to this plant at Grangemoor Park a couple of days ago, I made sure to take lots of photos of it. And today I found out this straggly, nondescript wildflower is not just any old plant, this is ‘The Herb’!

200805 vervain (1)

Vervain (Verbena officinalis) was so valued by herbalists in Anglo Saxon times that it was considered ‘The Chief Herb’, and was ‘a venerated plant, valued not just as a panacea (it was trumpeted as a cure for the plague in the Middle Ages) but as a magical charm, which could both protect against witches and demons and conjure up devilry of its own’ (Flora Britannica). 

200805 vervain (3)
200805 vervain (2)

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196/366 First Brown argus of 2020

14 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British butterflies, Brown argus, butterfly, butterflying, Grangemoor Park

By this date last year, I had managed to find Brown argus butterflies at two different local sites (and one of those was the first Cardiff record in eight years). This year I only spotted my first Brown argus last Saturday, almost two months later than last year. The Polyommatinae family (that’s the blues and arguses) are not faring well in my part of south Wales this year, which is a great shame, as they are all gorgeous little butterflies.

200714 brown argus (1)

If you’re having trouble telling a Brown argus from a Common blue female, my blog Flying on the wings of Confusion, July 2018, has ID pointers and photos that should help.

200714 brown argus (2)

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194/366 Watching, waiting

12 Sunday Jul 2020

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British orchids, Broad-leaved helleborine, Grangemoor Park, native orchids

During my lockdown meanders around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, I’ve been keeping an eye on these Broad-leaved helleborines, watching and waiting for them to bloom. Though I’d only found them in one location in previous years, this year I’ve spotted them in three different places around the park.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 17 june (2)

Here they are on 17 June, looking healthy, with lots of lush foliage.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 17 june (1)

Just over a week later, on 25 June, flower spikes have developed well on a couple of plants, so I’m hopeful of a good display.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 25 june (1)
200712 broad-leaved helleborine 25 june (2)

I don’t manage to get back this way until 11 July, but I’m full of expectation of a mass of blooms. Unfortunately, though we’ve had plenty of rain, a couple of plants look brown and slightly withered (as they’re adjacent to a well-used footpath, I wonder if passing dogs might have urinated on them). A couple of other plants look as if they’ve been trampled.

200712 broad-leaved helleborine 11 july (1)
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Luckily, I have found two plants with spikes intact and a couple of flowers open on each. Such pretty little things.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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178/366 Essex skippers

26 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Essex skipper, Grangemoor Park, Skippers

I’ve been melting in this week’s heatwave but it’s been a wonderful week for butterflies: on Monday, a long-lost Small heath, on Wednesday my first Painted Lady of the year, and yesterday two Essex skippers.

200626 essex skipper (1)

I went early to Grangemoor Park to avoid the worst of the heat but it was already roasting, and the skippers, Large and Small, were scooting around the grasses and wildflowers so rapidly that I couldn’t get many photos. Then, along one path, two skippers flew up, one disappeared but the other found a perch and stayed there, most patiently, while I quietly edged my way around in front of it to check what I suspected from the rear view. And, bingo, black-tipped antennae – an Essex skipper.

200626 essex skipper (2)

A second path, an almost perfect repeat performance, a second Essex skipper. I do find these gorgeous little skippers will remain on a perch when they find one to their liking, which is extremely convenient for getting photos to confirm their identities.

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152/366 Pyramids and bees

31 Sunday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, wildflowers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Anacamptis pyramidalis, Bee orchid, British orchids, Grangemoor Park, native orchids, Ophrys apifera), Pyramidal orchid

You might be wondering what pyramids and bees have in common. Well, in this case, they’re both orchids: the Pyramidal orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) and the Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), and I was very pleasantly surprised to see rather a lot of them, especially the Bees, during my most recent walk around Grangemoor Park.

200531 pyramidal orchid (1)

With their classic triangular shape, Pyramidal orchids are easy to identify. They usually flower during June and July, and each flower spike can contain up to a hundred individual flowers. Interesting fact: the Pyramidal orchid is the county flower of the Isle of Wight.

200531 pyramidal orchid (2)200531 bee orchid (2)

Bee orchids are my favourite orchids. Their markings and furry texture may be intended to attract bumblebees (and the flowers also produce a female bee smell, apparently) but it’s their laughing ‘faces’ that enchant me and always make me smile. And the people of Bedfordshire made the perfect choice when they selected the Bee orchid as their county flower.

200531 bee orchid (1)

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142/366 Moths made my day

21 Thursday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British moths, Grangemoor Park, Latticed heath, moth

I’d hoped the sunny skies and warmth would bring out more butterflies during yesterday’s exercise walk but they were few and far between at Grangemoor Park, and I think that’s weather related.

200521 latticed heath (1)

Earlier this year, we had almost constant, often heavy rain that saturated the ground and turned everywhere to mud, and now the ground is being baked dry and hard by a subsequent lack of rain. This cycle seems to be having a marked effect on plant growth and insect emergence – at least that’s what I’m seeing, or, rather, not seeing.

200521 latticed heath (2)

The good news at Grangemoor, though, was the abundance of Latticed heath moths, more than I’ve spotted in one day before. Though they do have a habit of flitting very quickly away just as I get ready to take their photo, they are lovely creatures, and seeing so many certainly made my day.

200521 latticed heath (3)

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135/366 Swollen thighs

14 Thursday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British insects, Buttercup, Grangemoor Park, Oedemera nobilis, Swollen-thighed beetle, Thick-legged beetle

You know summer’s just around the corner when the Swollen-thighed beetles (Oedemera nobilis) start to appear. The Ox-eye daisies and buttercups were full of them at Grangemoor Park on Tuesday.

200514 swollen-thighed beetle

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124/366 Ragged robin

03 Sunday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Bee-fly, British wildflowers, Grangemoor Park, Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged robin, Silene flos-cuculi, Spring colour, spring flowers

At Grangemoor Park on Friday, I spotted my first flowering Ragged robin for the year.

200503 ragged robin (1)

This gorgeous wildflower was formerly known as Lychnis flos-cuculi, but is now Silene flos-cuculi – from a scientific article I browsed, this seems a complicated story of almost constant reclassification of the species! You will still see both names used in books and on line, which is why I’ve mentioned both here.

200503 ragged robin (2)

According to a couple of books I discovered on the ‘language of flowers’, Ragged robin’s symbolic meaning is ‘wit’, and it is dedicated to Saint Barnabas. The ever-informative First Nature website says:

Lychnis, the genus name, comes from the Greek noun lychnos, meaning lamp; it refers to the use of a plant in this genus as the wick of an oil lamp. The specific epithet flos-cuculi means ‘flower of the cuckoo’ and was probably chosen because the first flowers of Ragged Robin appear just as the first cuckoos are being heard (in Britain and Ireland at least) in May.

200503 ragged robin (3)

A special moment: to try to stop it swaying in the breeze so I could get a sharp photo, I was holding one of the blooms when a bee-fly decided to zoom in for a feed of nectar. That super long proboscis comes in handy for long narrow flowers like these.

200503 ragged robin (4)

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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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