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Category Archives: ferns

September Woods

22 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by theresagreen in bird behaviour, ferns, Nature of Wales, nature of woodlands, North Wales, woodland birds, woodland walks in Wales

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

black spots on sycamore leaves, Blue tit, grey-green lichen hanging from tree, hart's tongue fern, male fern, Nuthatch

September 8th – Bryn Euryn

Woodland Path

Yet another windy day with intermittent sunshine, so I’m seeking shelter in the woods. It is almost eerily silent and the damp soft earth of the path absorbs the sound of my footsteps. Something detects my presence at the last minute; loud rustling sounds from the undergrowth startle me and a panicked grey squirrel shoots out in front of me, sprints rapidly along the path and launches itself up the trunk of the nearest large tree. It pauses when it feels safely hidden behind foliage, but I spied it through the leaves, its mouth filled with an acorn, still green and unripe.

There are ripe blackberries, but on the early fruiting brambles some are already mouldering, and a feasting greenbottle fly reminds me why I don’t eat too many unwashed wild berries.

Chains of scarlet berries drape shrubbery. This one twined through holly reminded me of a Christmas garland; I wonder if sights such as this sparked the idea for festive decorations?

The berries are those of Black Bryony-Tamus communis, and will continue to ripen until they are black. A perennial plant described as twining, but often it’s more of a scrambler.

Woodland Trail

There are rose hips here

and a bramble whose leaves look as though they are almost ready to drop.

The gorse bushes have fresh golden blossom and clever spiders have spun webs in the hope of capturing flying insects drawn to their nectar and pollen. Gorse flowers throughout most months of the year prompting the old saying, “When gorse is out of flower, Kissing is out of season!”

Summit Trail – backtracking

The last time I walked here I took a slightly different route to the summit of the hill, taking an unmarked track up through the woodland to join the Summit Trail. I hadn’t planned to that, but at the junction of the paths I usually take I’d stopped to try to locate Jays that I’d heard screeching in nearby trees and a man with a dog stopped to ask me what I was looking at. We had an interesting chat comparing notes about what we both see here and where, but I didn’t catch the Jays. I waited to see which way he would go to continue his walk and seeing it was the same way I was headed, decided to go the opposite way. Not that I’m unsociable of course, rather that I see far more on my own and in my own time; and he had a dog! Anyway, the upshot was that I ended up on a narrow upward track through the trees on another windy day that was sunny but still damp from the previous night’s rain.

Spiders’ webs lit by the sunshine filtering down through the leaf canopy caught my eye and I stopped to admire the artistry of their construction and to try to find their makers. Looking more closely I saw most of the webs were broken and apparently abandoned, although this one had captured a beautiful rainbow.

As so often happens, my slow progress and in this instance, last-minute change of route brought forth a magical few moments. Until now the only sounds had been mainly of the wind rushing through the trees, but I began to hear bird calls that got gradually nearer and suddenly I was surrounded on all sides by excited little birds – a travelling feeding party! I had been standing still and they seemed not to notice me; I’ve described a similar experience in a previous post and this was equally as joyous and uplifting. It was a large party too, impossible to count the numbers of birds within it as they scattered amongst the trees, but Blue tits were probably most numerous with at least a dozen Long-tailed tits; Great-tits were there too. I didn’t see Tree-creepers as before, but was thrilled to see a Nuthatch that chose to explore a tree right in front of me.

Nuthatch-Sitta europaea

Taking photographs in the darkness of woods is rarely successful, but a Nuthatch did pause briefly from its foraging near a patch of sunlight, giving me a reasonable chance to record this bird for the first time here. Watching a tiny Blue-tit searching through ivy high up in another tree I realised it was looking for spiders, which are an important part of their diet. Perhaps the birds’ regular forays are the reason I couldn’t find any.

Blue tit seeking spiders

Back to the present 

Sycamore leaf with spots of fungus

There was no feeding party today, but there were other signs of a summer ending. Sycamore leaves, amongst the first to break their buds in the Spring are amongst the first to change colour and fall. Most of those I see nowadays are marked with dark spots; this is Rhytisma acerinum, the Sycamore Tarspot. It doesn’t look attractive, but although it is suspected that the darkened areas reduce the photosynthetic capacity of affected trees, the fungus doesn’t seem to affect the tree’s health and vigour. One consolation of the fungus’ presence is that is shows the air here is fairly clean as it is apparently particularly sensitive to sulphur dioxide air pollution. Trees growing near to industrial centres with high levels of sulphur emissions do not show any sign of the leaf-blackening fungi.

If you look at the undersides of the fronds of most ferns, their seeds, spores or more correctly sori  are now ripe. The Male Fern is the most common fern found growing here; its sori are round and normally run in two parallel rows.

There’s a large patch of Hart’s Tongue Fern growing in damp shade on a steep bank. Its leaves and sori take a different form to those of other fern species. Their ripe sori accentuate the marks on the underside of the leaves and it seemed to the person that named the plant that they resembled the legs of a centipede, so he gave it the scientific name ‘scolopendrium‘, the Latin for centipede.

Hart’s Tongue Fern-Phyllitis scolopendrium

The track passes a sheer cliff of limestone. Its surface is frequently damp, sometimes wet and its base is covered with a lush, bright green shag-pile carpet of moss.

There’s a small grove of Silver Birch trees on this shady, damper side of the Bryn that are also beginning to lose their leaves, which stud the dark mud of the track with specks of bright gold.

Nearing the end of the path the trees thin and give way to scrubbier vegetation, mostly blackthorn and hawthorn. The blackthorn has beautiful purple sloes and its leaves too are beginning to turn colour.

A number of the blackthorn shrubs here also have clumps of pretty grey-green lichens. Some looks like a tangle of moss, which I can’t accurately name.

Other blackthorns have a lichen in a different form, this one, photographed on a nearby shrubby hawthorn tree with dark red fruits (haws), has the appearance of Reindeer moss, but I can’t yet be species-specific.

Emerging from cover onto the exposed summit I braced myself for another confrontation with the wind. The sun had disappeared behind clouds that were shutting out its brightness, leaving the landscape in shadow, dulling its colours. Part of the view across the valley from here takes in buildings and fields that belong to the Welsh Mountain Zoo, located above Colwyn Bay. There are sometimes interesting animals grazing in the fields; today it was some kind of cattle.

With or without sunshine I love this hillside view of small fields bounded with hedges and trees with the mountains in the distance. It reminds me a little of a David Hockney painting.

The mountains are topped with billowing clouds that permitted some sunshine through to lighten slopes here and there and to brighten the water of the river Conwy.

On days like this you can only hope for at least a little sunshine to brighten the rest of a walk…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Winter Greens

08 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, ferns, Nature, Nature of Wales, woodland walks in Wales

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

evergreen trees, Great Tit, hart's tongue fern, holly, ivy, polypody fern, scots pine, stinking iris, yew

My walks on Bryn Euryn have a different starting point now and it has been interesting to note the differences in the character of the woodland on this eastern to south-eastern aspect of the hill. Firstly, on this particular pathway you are immediately in the woodland and notice there is a difference in the pattern of tree species. I am fairly sure that is because the land that the apartment block that I now live in was formerly the site of a large house, one of several similar ones, most of which are still standing and in use as residential care homes. All have large mature gardens to the fronts and sides and are set back tightly against the rising wooded hillside, so certain of the trees and shrubs, such as laurels and Scots Pines, that you don’t find on the other slopes of the hill, have inevitably escaped. Other evergreens Yew, Holly and Ivy occur throughout the woodland on all sides, but this area seems to have more and larger specimens of them and so appears particularly green.

Sunlight on a path lined with evergreens

Sunlight on a path lined with evergreens-yew, holly & laurel

Yew is one of our native species of trees and occurs naturally in the wild in woodlands in several parts of Britain, although it is not as widespread as it used to be.

Yew tree

A large Yew tree

Yew foliage

Yew foliage

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is an evergreen conifer native to northern Europe, and is one of just three conifers native to the UK.

150104TGFL-Bryn Euryn 12-Scots Pine

A huge Scots Pine

A Great tit in the pine tree

A Great tit in the pine tree

Holly and Ivy

Holly and Ivy

Shiny Holly leaves

Shiny Holly leaves

Ivy

Ivy

Sun shining through an ivy leaf

Sun shining through an ivy leaf

Greenery is also abundant on the woodland floor.

Fern around the base of a tree

Polypody fern around the base of a tree

Hart's tongue fern

Hart’s tongue fern

Male fern

Male fern

Spores on the back of a fern leaf

Spores (sori) still cling to the back of a fern leaf

Vibrant green moss amongst dry brown leaves

Vibrant green moss amongst dry brown leaves

Winter is a good time time to see mosses when many are at their best.

Feather moss

Feather moss

Young fern and holly plants in a mossy bed

Young fern and holly plants in a mossy bed

A few splashes of colour…….

Red berries of nightshade strung like beads around ivy

Red berries of nightshade strung like beads around ivy

A few berries remain on a 'Stinking Iris'- Iris foetidissma

A few berries remain on a ‘Stinking Iris’- Iris foetidissma

 

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A Trip to Pembrokeshire:Part 3: Woodland walk

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by theresagreen in ferns, Nature, nature photography

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

coal tit, dipper, foxglove, grey squirrel, hard fern, lady fern, Nevern, Pembrokeshire, Pilgrim's Cross, Pilgrim's Way, River Nevern, song thrush, tawny owl, wall fern

Our plan had been to head off to Skomer Island on Friday, but clearly we were thwarted in that by the extreme weather conditions and then constrained further by the fallen tree. We returned to the house after our ‘reccie’ of the tree situation, hung our waterproofs up to drip dry and headed indoors to warm up in front of the Aga.

Leaves ripped off the trees littered the ground and guessing that caterpillars and other tree-dwelling fauna may have come down with them, we thought some of the smaller birds may have been struggling to find food. On previous visits here we have always baited the bird table, usually with seeds and nuts, mainly to bring down the Nuthatches, who’s presence is surprisingly easy to buy. All we had to offer today was left-over bread (it was the more wholesome stuff), so we put it out anyway to see what was still around despite the rain. Within minutes a Nuthatch appeared, picked out what it fancied and took it back to a nearby tree. They don’t share well, so Blue Tits had to wait to dive in the cover of shrubbery till it was gone. A lone Chaffinch, I think it was a young one, pecked around beneath the table, as did a Robin. The Nuthatch made repeated visits, then the big boys arrived, crows and a gorgeous jay that grabbed great beakfuls and carried them off. A squirrel was not far behind them.

Grey Squirrel sitting cheekily beneath the bird table

A young blackbird in odd-looking transitional plumage hunting worms on the lawn in the rain

The song thrush was out hunting in some very heavy rain

The Pilgrim’s Way

By mid-afternoon the wind and rain had subsided enough for us to venture outside for a proper walk. We thought that if we stuck pretty much to the woodland that we would be protected from the worst of the rain and sheltered from the wind.

A pathway runs close behind the property, partially cutting through its private woodland but part of a publicly-accessible circular walk beginning and if you like, ending at Nevern Church. The church, dedicated to St. Brynach is at the end of an historic Pilgrim’s Way from St.David’s cathedral, dedicated to Wales’ patron saint and regarded as the holiest place in the country. (More detailed Nevern history to follow in a later post.)

The route of this walk has become familiar over the last few years, but each time I have visited there has been something different to see. This year I have resolved to take more notice of ferns and make a proper effort to identify the ones I see and learn more about them. The damp woodlands of Wales is a great place to find them without having to try very hard at all and I spotted one I was looking out for within a very short time, a Hard fern.

A lovely specimen of Hard fern-blechnum spicant growing from the rocky bank

Most ferns produce their spores on the mature fronds, but the woodland hard fern is one of a few species that does it differently. This plant has developed special fronds, the sole purpose of which is to bear spores, so they resemble a flowering plant in form with a rosette of leaves and some spore-producing structures in the middle.

The most abundant species here is the Lady Fern – Athyrium filix-femina, which forms large graceful clumps with the fronds arising from a central point rather than along a rhizome. The fronds are a light yellow-green and very dissected.

The frond of a lady fern

Ferns lining the steep banks of the woodland path which is cut into the rock and roughly follows the course of the river.

The river runs along the bottom of a valley that is bounded on ‘our’ side by the steep rocky hillside that is thickly wooded with a variety of tree species including beech, ash, sessile oak and sycamore. On the opposite side is a narrow belt of trees with grassy farmland beyond. This combination of  old mature woodland, the river and adjacent farmland has created the perfect habitat for a wonderful variety of flora and fauna.   In April and May, before the tree canopy closes over there are masses of colourful wood anemones, primroses, bluebells and ramsons (wild garlic), but now we were surrounded by lush greenery in a myriad of shades and forms broken surprisingly often by the flower of the moment, the glorious foxglove.

A beautiful display of foxgloves in a clearing

More foxgloves on the side of the path

Navelwort and moss growing on a shady length of the stone wall that bounds woodland from the farmland

There were birds singing despite the rain, Song Thrush and Wren mainly, but also Blackbird, Chiffchaff and a very tuneful Garden Warbler. On other occasions we have had lovely sightings of Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, an array of Tits – blue, great, coal and long-tailed. Some of my all-time favourite sightings of birds have occurred here; the three following photographs are all from our May 2007 trip.

A Coal Tit with food for chicks taken in Nevern woods in early May 2007

We had gone out quite early one morning and reaching the point along the path where there are two, now tumbledown, old stone buildings, we heard a sound from the roof of one and looked up to see a young Tawny Owl watching us.

11/5/07 A young tawny owl peering down at us from the chimney of an old tumbledown stone cottage

The end of this section of path intersects with a wider access track. Turning left onto it brings you to a bridge that crosses the river that is just wide enough for one vehicle to cross. Today the river was in full flow and deep muddy water rushed through the arches of the bridge, but usually at this time of year the water is shallower, although still quite fast flowing and it splashes over rocks that are now submerged. We have had lovely views of Grey Wagtails here, balancing on the rocks and chasing after flies; beneath the bridge has been a favoured nesting site for them and one year we were treated to views of  newly-fledged young perched on nearby vegetation being fed by their parents.

It has also proved an excellent spot from which to see the charismatic Dipper, a bird that is present along this stretch of the river all year round. Sadly we had not even a glimpse of either bird this time.

9/5/07- Looking down on a Dipper from the bridge

We didn’t linger long on the bridge as it was raining again and crossed the stone stile to take the slightly higher farm track where we had some cover from more trees.

Stone stile

Frothy elder blossom

Further down the track passes between some old stone farm buildings, no longer in use, which we had a little nosy around. We have done this several times before, always hoping we may find evidence of a Barn Owl nesting there, but still no luck with that.

More navelwort, this time in a more open spot, but overhung by pine trees

Maidenhair Spleenwort -Asplenium trichomanes

At the end of the surfaced track there is a gate that leads into an open meadow; much of it is marshy and supports a lovely array of flora that thrives in such conditions, including the glamorous Yellow Iris, or Yellow Flag Iris as it is also called and an abundant amount of Water Horsetail.

Yellow Iris-Iris pseudacorus

Passing through the gate at the far end of the field brings you out into Nevern village, almost on the bridge. It is a lovely old stone bridge, dating back to medieval times and is a Grade 2 listed building. The rain had eased by the time we got here and we stood for some time watching a party of young House Martins practising their fly-catching skills over the river. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, swooping through the arches of the bridge and skimming low, sometimes perhaps a little too low over the surface of the water. It was hugely entertaining and a real treat to watch them, but a bit risky too – more than once we had excited birds passing at great speed by our ears, close enough to feel a change in the air pressure.

Nevern Bridge has been a Grade 2 British listed building since 1952.

Moving on we continued walking towards the church, another fascinating building that again I will describe in more detail later.

The tower of St.Brynach’s Church, Nevern

Just before reaching the church we turned left to continue our circuit and return home. A short way up the first hill is the Pilgrim’s Cross that it is thought may have been a way marker to reassure Pilgrims of old that they were on the correct route to or from St.David’s.

The Pilgrim’s Cross is set quite high up in the rock face and can be difficult to see.

 

Quite difficult to spot initially, it is set just above head height on a rocky outcrop ; coins pushed into the cracks in the rocks may help to pick out the outline. There is a legend that behind this rocky outcrop is a hidden cave that contains the remains of Merlin, King Arthurs Wizard and one theory has it that the cross is not carved into the rockface, as such, but into the stone of a bricked-up entrance to a cave….

Even I know of several sites spread throughout Wales that reputedly hold the remains of the fabled King Arthur, but who knows? This is as  likely a spot as any other.

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On the trail of native woodland flora

02 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by theresagreen in ferns, fungi, nature of woodlands

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Tags

feathery moss, holly, native trees of Wales, orange lichen on tree trunk, silver birch, turkey-tail fungus, woodland walk

Bryn Euryn’s woodland is home to a good number of native species of trees, including Ash, Beech, Silver Birch and Sessile Oak. There are also many large Sycamore trees, which although well-recognised and widespread in Britain are the true natives of woodlands of Central Europe.

11/8/11-Steps wind uphill through the trees

Amongst the large trees are sprinklings of native shrubs or smaller trees of Holly and the occasional Yew, with Hawthorns on the woodland edges.

11/8/11-European Holly -Ilex aquifolium

Ivy is another plant that is so widespread and commonly occurring that I was quite surprised to find it is not a native plant in Northern Europe, but hails from western, central and southern Europe.

11/8/11-Ivy-Hedera helix

11/8/11- An impressive Silver Birch -Betula pendula

11/8/11-Moss growing on the trunk of a silver birch tree

The cool shady and damp woodlands provide perfect habitat for various species of ferns, mosses and lichens too.

“Wales only occupies about 10 per cent of the land area of the British Isles but it has an extraordinary diversity of lower plants and fungi including 75 per cent of the mosses and liverworts, 74 per cent of the lichens and 80 per cent of the rust fungi. This diversity is probably thanks to Wales having such a broad range of relatively un-disturbed habitats and a small population”

http://www.plant-talk.org

11/8/11-Common Feather-moss-Kindbergia praelonga

I love coming across little ‘scenes’ such as the one below, where moss partially clothes a craggy rock which also supports a blue-green lichen and is surrounded by dried leaves and twigs. So many textures shades of colours in a very small area of the woodland floor, and doubtless many insects and micro-organisms are there too.

11/8/11-A mossy rock in a bed of dry leaves

11/8/11- Male Fern-Dryopteris filix-mas

In open spots on the woodland edge there are brambles, flowering at the moment and attracting lots of little hoverflies.

11/8/11-Hoverfly-Melangyna cincta on bramble flower

11/8/11- Mustard Powder Lichen-Chrysothrix candelaris on a sycamore trunk

The bright yellow Mustard Powder lichen or Gold Dust lichen– Chrysothrix candelaris  commonly grows on tree bark. It is widespread and common in the United Kingdom, being found on the bark of deciduous trees, especially rugged old specimens, such as sycamore, alder, oak, willow, beech, and Pinus species, normally in dry shaded parts.

11/8/11-Turkey- tail fungus - Tramates versicolor

I came across the ‘Turkey-tail’ fungus on a path around the summit of the hill and thought it was fascinating. It takes its common name from the way in which the patterning and the cup or spoon shaped fungus resembles, well, the shape and patterning a turkey’s tail. It is a common bracket fungus which grows on the sides of logs or trees and occurs in a variety of colours including brown, tan, orange, white, red or purple, sometimes all together (Versicolor means ‘of several colours’). Turkey Tails are not poisonous to people but they are not eaten either.

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Bryn Euryn on a sunny summer’s afternoon

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, ferns

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Tags

dark green fritillary, grayling, green-veined white, Red Admiral, small heath, small skipper, summer orchids

I was surprised to find just one other car in the car park when I arrived at ‘the Bryn’ on a warm sunny early afternoon last week; I had expected it to be busier, so was pleased that I would be able to enjoy this lovely but popular reserve while it was peaceful. The peace didn’t last long! I began my walk with a circuit of the grassy area next to the car park, checking out the wildflowers for any interesting insects and was soon joined by a man walking a smallish dog. It appeared he was doing the job on sufferance, releasing it from its lead while he wandered around talking loudly on his mobile phone, breaking off frequently to shout at the dog. Things got even worse when another man with two dogs, both on leads, arrived, causing the loose dog much excitement and its walker to shout even more. I decided to leave this bit for another day and hurried off onto the stepped track woodland track towards the top of the hill.

I stopped halfway up, in front of the cottage where the track divides as I caught sight of a large bramble bush covered with blossom. I saw a Comma butterfly feeding here but missed the brief photo opportunity; I also missed a Holly Blue, but I did catch one of a Green-veined White basking on a clematis leaf.

Green-veined White – Pieris napi

Hoverfly-Syrphus ribesii

The woodland was silent, usual at this time of year due to the lack of birdsong and calls, but making you wish you could move more quietly and be less conscious of every footfall you make.

I was taken by surprise when the silence was broken by a soft ‘huit’call from close by and I looked up to see a young Chiffchaff in a sycamore tree.

A young Chiffchaff sitting in a Sycamore tree

The foliage of the woodland trees is still fresh, not yet showing the dusty tiredness of late summer, the greenness is carried through and down to the floor beneath, accented by glossy Hart’s Tongue ferns and cushions of soft green moss.

Harts Tongue Fern – Asplenium scolopendrium
A perfect Speckled Wood resting lightly on a fern frond

Emerging from the dappled shade onto the grassy hilltop my eye was caught by the low fluttery flight of small orange and brown butterflies- Small Heaths, several of which were flying in quite a small area and looking perfect and newly-emerged.

Small Heath – Coenonympha pamphilus

There were a lot of Meadow Browns too, keeping low to the ground and often disappearing from sight as they tucked themselves down on the ground amongst the grass stems.

Meadow Brown – Maniola jurtina

I carrried on round the hilltop admiring the stunning panoramic views stretched out beneath and across to the Snowdonia mountains, making for the summit, then continued on down the other side onto the grassy meadowland.

Just below the summit a scabious plant is growing from a crevice in a rock

The grass was studded with beautiful blue Harebells that look dainty and delicate but must be pretty hardy to thrive in the habitats they are found in.

Harebell-Campanula rotundifolia
The long grass and tall wildflowers attracting many butterflies

I had half-decided to continue walking down the slope to the woodland at the bottom, but as I passed by the area where the grass has been kept longer and where brambles, thistles and knapweed were flowering, I caught sight of a large brown butterfly flying fast and strongly, that then landed on a knapweed flower. Unmistakably a fritillary, although I had no idea of the species: its colours looked rather faded and it there was some damage to the wing edges, so it may have been around for a while and I didn’t get sight of its underwings. Checking later on I think its most likely a Dark Green Fritillary, but as ever I’m happy to be corrected.

20/7/11-Dark green Fritillary-Argynnis aglaja

I sat on the grassy slope for a while hoping for more fritillary sightings, which happily I got; in addition there were more Green-veined Whites and several Small Skippers flitting around low amongst the long grass.

Small Skipper – Thymelicus sylvestris
A Silver Y moth – Autographa gamma, also caught my eye as it fluttered in the long grass

I heard the ‘bark’ of a Raven and just caught sight of it as descended, landing somewhere beyond the slope out of sight. A Buzzard circled overhead. Preparing to leave and retrace my steps I crossed to the other side of the slope, took a photograph of the Little Orme and spotted a lovely specimen of Thistle.

A view of the Little Orme from the top of Bryn Euryn

Scotch Thistle-Onopordum acanthium

Reaching the thistle I was delighted to spot orchids growing in the quite-long grass, I wasn’t expecting that at all. As with the fritillary butterfly they were a little past their best, but still pretty;  most were pink in colour, but there were some white ones too. (I still am unsure what species they are, will update when I find out.)

A group of pink-purple orchids
Pink-purple specimen
A white-flowered specimen

Leaving the orchids I was more than happy with my afternoon’s discoveries and turned to head back up to the summit then down and back to the car. I couldn’t resist sitting to gaze at the view for a few minutes and got distracted by flies, flesh-flies to be accurate, that have rather unpleasant eating habits, but that actually look quite attractive.

Flesh-fly – Sarcophaga carnaria

Making my way back down the slope I spotted another butterfly land on a warm rock,  a gorgeous Grayling.

A Grayling – Hipparchia semele resting on a warm limestone rock

Then close by a female Large White landed on a leaf.

20/7/11-Large White (f)-Pieris brassicae

Finally reaching the top of the path downwards I very shortly stopped again for yet another butterfly, this time a Red Admiral that posed beautifully on a wild rose leaf  in a spot of sunlight.

Red Admiral-Vanessa atalanta

There were more people around as I made my walk down, most of whom were walking dogs. I made a quick stop at the brambles where I’d seen the Comma earlier, hoping it may return, which of course it didn’t, but I did see some young Chaffinches in a tree there. As I got close to the bottom of the hill I caught sight of a bird on the ground tugging at something it had found. It was a Thrush and by the way it took little notice of me I assumed it was a young one. I attempted to photograph it but it was far too shady there, so I just stood and watched it for several minutes. It carried on foraging quite untroubled until we both heard the ‘mewing’ of a Buzzard and the simultaneous rough cawing of a Crow. The Buzzard, again I think a young one, came crashing through the trees and landed on a branch, looking very ruffled and quite upset: I assume the Crow must have pursued it there. The Thrush was long gone.

Common Mallow

My total butterfly sightings were from 11 species: Large White, Green-veined White, Comma,Red Admiral, Dark Green Fritillary, Grayling, Small Heath, Speckled Wood,Meadow Brown,Holly Blue & Small Skipper.

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‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

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    Happy St. Dwynwen's Day
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    Pretty prickly Thistles
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    Grey Seals in North Wales
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    January on the Bryn
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    The not-so-common House Sparrow
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    The life of a Yellow Dung-fly
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    Wales Coast Path-Colwyn Bay to Pensarn
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    Severn Estuary
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    The Foxglove - of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine

nightingale trails

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

MY WILDFLOWER BLOG: where the wildflowers are

Snowdrop

Snowdrop

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