Annie Irving
@sconzani.bsky.social
Walker, birder, butterflier, leaf-fossicker, knitter, genealogist
Daily nature blogger : earthstar.blog
Daily nature blogger : earthstar.blog
A double-dipper today but there are always birds to see: a Kestrel on the lookout for lunch; a Robin ditto; a Tufted duck (someone was feeding seed to the birds on the concrete & Mr Tufty was tempted out of the water to get some); & I'd heard about Beaky but not seen him till today. #birdingWales
November 21, 2025 at 6:43 PM
A double-dipper today but there are always birds to see: a Kestrel on the lookout for lunch; a Robin ditto; a Tufted duck (someone was feeding seed to the birds on the concrete & Mr Tufty was tempted out of the water to get some); & I'd heard about Beaky but not seen him till today. #birdingWales
These railings alongside the River Ely look clean & empty but, if you look more closely, you'll find the undersides are covered in thick green lichen &, feeding there, tens of Ramshorn bagworms (Luffia lapidella) in their lichen-covered casings. I even found what looks like empty pupae. #TeamMoth
November 20, 2025 at 5:35 PM
These railings alongside the River Ely look clean & empty but, if you look more closely, you'll find the undersides are covered in thick green lichen &, feeding there, tens of Ramshorn bagworms (Luffia lapidella) in their lichen-covered casings. I even found what looks like empty pupae. #TeamMoth
While one of the local Common sandpipers that will most likely overwinter in Cardiff Bay again was working the chilly water along Ely river edge, the other was taking a break on a yacht in the marina, basking in the sunshine, preening. #birdingWales
November 20, 2025 at 5:20 PM
While one of the local Common sandpipers that will most likely overwinter in Cardiff Bay again was working the chilly water along Ely river edge, the other was taking a break on a yacht in the marina, basking in the sunshine, preening. #birdingWales
THIS! Every single word of this!
dorseteye.com/if-we-are-ho...
dorseteye.com/if-we-are-ho...
If We Are Honest We All Know Who Is To Blame - Dorset Eye
They Broke It. Now They Want Us Blaming Each Other Let’s be straight about what has happened to this country. For decades the powerful have squeezed working people from every angle. They slashed publi...
dorseteye.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:42 PM
THIS! Every single word of this!
dorseteye.com/if-we-are-ho...
dorseteye.com/if-we-are-ho...
Paging my fungi experts @jeremybartlett.bsky.social and @lukaslarge.bsky.social - is this Oak mazegill (Daedalea quercina) please? Growing on a huge old fallen Oak in a Cardiff park today. Looks like a mazegill. Just not sure 'cause the caps of mature specimens were rather hairy.
November 18, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Paging my fungi experts @jeremybartlett.bsky.social and @lukaslarge.bsky.social - is this Oak mazegill (Daedalea quercina) please? Growing on a huge old fallen Oak in a Cardiff park today. Looks like a mazegill. Just not sure 'cause the caps of mature specimens were rather hairy.
7.35 this morning, the sun had just risen above the Mendips, & the Woodpigeons have begun moving northwards again, along the south Wales coast, reversing the journey they made a week or so ago. Did they get to Land's End & think 'You've gotta be kidding me?' #birdingWales
November 17, 2025 at 8:22 AM
7.35 this morning, the sun had just risen above the Mendips, & the Woodpigeons have begun moving northwards again, along the south Wales coast, reversing the journey they made a week or so ago. Did they get to Land's End & think 'You've gotta be kidding me?' #birdingWales
When I first saw these birds flying across Cosmeston today, I thought they must be something exciting.
After looking more closely, I realised that I've never seen gulls flying in formation like this before. So, yes, I was a little disappointed but I still learnt something.
After looking more closely, I realised that I've never seen gulls flying in formation like this before. So, yes, I was a little disappointed but I still learnt something.
November 16, 2025 at 8:01 PM
When I first saw these birds flying across Cosmeston today, I thought they must be something exciting.
After looking more closely, I realised that I've never seen gulls flying in formation like this before. So, yes, I was a little disappointed but I still learnt something.
After looking more closely, I realised that I've never seen gulls flying in formation like this before. So, yes, I was a little disappointed but I still learnt something.
Today's colour is black: my Crow friends, female & male; a pair of Rooks; & a Jackdaw - handsome birds all.
Also, saw my first Redwings of the season, lots of them, & first Fieldfare of the year - for some reason they weren't around at the start of the year. #birdingWales
Also, saw my first Redwings of the season, lots of them, & first Fieldfare of the year - for some reason they weren't around at the start of the year. #birdingWales
November 16, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Today's colour is black: my Crow friends, female & male; a pair of Rooks; & a Jackdaw - handsome birds all.
Also, saw my first Redwings of the season, lots of them, & first Fieldfare of the year - for some reason they weren't around at the start of the year. #birdingWales
Also, saw my first Redwings of the season, lots of them, & first Fieldfare of the year - for some reason they weren't around at the start of the year. #birdingWales
The highlight of today's walk was finding my first female Vapourer moth, sitting on her cocoon, presumably newly emerged. Ominously, there were tiny parasitic wasps hanging around, presumably waiting to inject her eggs.
And, very close by, another cocoon, this one covered in eggs. #TeamMoth
And, very close by, another cocoon, this one covered in eggs. #TeamMoth
November 15, 2025 at 5:31 PM
The highlight of today's walk was finding my first female Vapourer moth, sitting on her cocoon, presumably newly emerged. Ominously, there were tiny parasitic wasps hanging around, presumably waiting to inject her eggs.
And, very close by, another cocoon, this one covered in eggs. #TeamMoth
And, very close by, another cocoon, this one covered in eggs. #TeamMoth
I've seen viviparous Teasels before but these viviparous umbellifers, spotted during yesterday's walk around Cardiff Bay, were a first for me and a result, I'm sure, of how warm and wet this autumn has been.
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I've seen viviparous Teasels before but these viviparous umbellifers, spotted during yesterday's walk around Cardiff Bay, were a first for me and a result, I'm sure, of how warm and wet this autumn has been.
From a circuit of the Bay today: Metellina mengei (judging by its leg hairs), a Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus), 3 webs characteristic of the Missing sector orb web spider (Zygiella x-notata) & no idea about the final large beast, busy wrapping its latest catch. #arachnids #spiders
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 PM
From a circuit of the Bay today: Metellina mengei (judging by its leg hairs), a Zebra spider (Salticus scenicus), 3 webs characteristic of the Missing sector orb web spider (Zygiella x-notata) & no idea about the final large beast, busy wrapping its latest catch. #arachnids #spiders
Today's weather has been dreich so I've been out-the-window birding, through raindrop-covered double-glazed windows so my photos aren't sharp, but it was great to watch all the birds - Song thrush, male & female Blackbirds, & Woodpigeons - scoffing Buckthorn berries. #birdingWales
November 12, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Today's weather has been dreich so I've been out-the-window birding, through raindrop-covered double-glazed windows so my photos aren't sharp, but it was great to watch all the birds - Song thrush, male & female Blackbirds, & Woodpigeons - scoffing Buckthorn berries. #birdingWales
Saw my first Black redstart of the season this morning, thanks to a heads up from @blodwyn.bsky.social. Need to go back for a better look when the weather's less grim. #birdingWales
November 11, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Saw my first Black redstart of the season this morning, thanks to a heads up from @blodwyn.bsky.social. Need to go back for a better look when the weather's less grim. #birdingWales
Any fly larvae experts out there? (Geoff Wilkinson doesn't seem to be here anymore so I can't ask him.)
I was initially thinking Lonchoptera sp but it doesn't have the 2 'antennae' front & rear that I've seen previously. Found today on a Sycamore leaf. #Diptera #entomology
I was initially thinking Lonchoptera sp but it doesn't have the 2 'antennae' front & rear that I've seen previously. Found today on a Sycamore leaf. #Diptera #entomology
November 10, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Any fly larvae experts out there? (Geoff Wilkinson doesn't seem to be here anymore so I can't ask him.)
I was initially thinking Lonchoptera sp but it doesn't have the 2 'antennae' front & rear that I've seen previously. Found today on a Sycamore leaf. #Diptera #entomology
I was initially thinking Lonchoptera sp but it doesn't have the 2 'antennae' front & rear that I've seen previously. Found today on a Sycamore leaf. #Diptera #entomology
I found a bountiful little patch of Ground ivy during today's rather wet walk. As well as the rust Puccinia glechomatis and lots of galls caused by the mite Rondaniola bursaria, there was also a single little Coleophora albitarsella case-bearing larva. #TeamMoth
November 10, 2025 at 5:23 PM
I found a bountiful little patch of Ground ivy during today's rather wet walk. As well as the rust Puccinia glechomatis and lots of galls caused by the mite Rondaniola bursaria, there was also a single little Coleophora albitarsella case-bearing larva. #TeamMoth
I don't often see Orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia) & I've never seen as much as this so, even though it was a bit past its best & chewed around the edges, I was very chuffed to find this in a Cardiff park on Thursday. #FungiUK #FungiFriends
November 8, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I don't often see Orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia) & I've never seen as much as this so, even though it was a bit past its best & chewed around the edges, I was very chuffed to find this in a Cardiff park on Thursday. #FungiUK #FungiFriends
An interesting assortment from the park railings as I walked past today: possibly the bug Pinalitus cervinus; maybe the ichneumon Tromatobia lineatoria; definitely the barkfly Valenzuela flavidus; & highly likely the hoverfly larva Epistrophe grossulariae.
November 7, 2025 at 6:28 PM
An interesting assortment from the park railings as I walked past today: possibly the bug Pinalitus cervinus; maybe the ichneumon Tromatobia lineatoria; definitely the barkfly Valenzuela flavidus; & highly likely the hoverfly larva Epistrophe grossulariae.
From today's local meander: my first 2 Common gulls of the autumn were with the Black-headed gulls and Cormorants on the orange buoys by Cardiff Bay's Barrage sluices. #birdingWales
November 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
From today's local meander: my first 2 Common gulls of the autumn were with the Black-headed gulls and Cormorants on the orange buoys by Cardiff Bay's Barrage sluices. #birdingWales
One of the autumn's massive flocks of migrating Woodpigeons passed over the house earlier, heading south along the coast. An incredible sight!
A few stopped off in the trees until the local crows made a fuss and sent them packing. #birdingWales
A few stopped off in the trees until the local crows made a fuss and sent them packing. #birdingWales
November 7, 2025 at 9:01 AM
One of the autumn's massive flocks of migrating Woodpigeons passed over the house earlier, heading south along the coast. An incredible sight!
A few stopped off in the trees until the local crows made a fuss and sent them packing. #birdingWales
A few stopped off in the trees until the local crows made a fuss and sent them packing. #birdingWales
It's sad when huge old trees fall but it does provide opportunities for fossicking around logs and branches and under slabs of bark. And today that produced a new harvestman, Nemastoma bimaculatum. There were also spiders but I've still to go through all my photos.
November 6, 2025 at 8:58 PM
It's sad when huge old trees fall but it does provide opportunities for fossicking around logs and branches and under slabs of bark. And today that produced a new harvestman, Nemastoma bimaculatum. There were also spiders but I've still to go through all my photos.
The subject of today's nature documentary 😂 is a Little grebe preening.
I don't know that I've ever seen one out of the water before so I watched, entranced, as it sorted out its feathers. #birdingWales
I don't know that I've ever seen one out of the water before so I watched, entranced, as it sorted out its feathers. #birdingWales
November 6, 2025 at 5:44 PM
The subject of today's nature documentary 😂 is a Little grebe preening.
I don't know that I've ever seen one out of the water before so I watched, entranced, as it sorted out its feathers. #birdingWales
I don't know that I've ever seen one out of the water before so I watched, entranced, as it sorted out its feathers. #birdingWales
Cardiff Bay this morning: a brief appearance by the Red-throated diver before it vanished again; a female Goosander having a wash, one of several now back in the Bay; a handsome Great crested grebe; & a Cetti's warbler out in the open, momentarily. #birdingWales
November 5, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Cardiff Bay this morning: a brief appearance by the Red-throated diver before it vanished again; a female Goosander having a wash, one of several now back in the Bay; a handsome Great crested grebe; & a Cetti's warbler out in the open, momentarily. #birdingWales
This Med gull was with the Black-headed gulls, all having a thorough wash, at Cardiff Bay wetlands this morning. #BirdingWales
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
This Med gull was with the Black-headed gulls, all having a thorough wash, at Cardiff Bay wetlands this morning. #BirdingWales
'Tis the time of the fly larvae! Yesterday I spotted 36 hoverfly larvae on the local park railings, likely all Syrphus species. Today I was getting odd looks from passers-by as I checked fallen Sycamore leaves in the rain & found 2 fly larvae, possibly Lauxaniidae species.
November 4, 2025 at 7:44 PM
'Tis the time of the fly larvae! Yesterday I spotted 36 hoverfly larvae on the local park railings, likely all Syrphus species. Today I was getting odd looks from passers-by as I checked fallen Sycamore leaves in the rain & found 2 fly larvae, possibly Lauxaniidae species.