POPLAR WITH MISTLETOE

Poplar is one of mistletoe's favourite hosts. Now the leaves are dropping off, the mistletoe shows up, not only on poplar, but also on lime, apple, robinia, silver maple and occasionally on hawthorn, oak and other trees.

 

WALL BARLEY

 One of the few grasses that I can confidently name, 

Wall Barley is ideal for throwing at your pals like a dart.

LATE CATERPILLARS

Although both the Pale Tussock Moth and the Knot Grass Moth are an attractive mottled grey, their caterpillars are more striking.  Because they overwinter as pupae, the caterpillars are around in September and early October - a nice bit of autumn colour.

  

Knot Grass

  

Pale Tussock

Photos:Caterpillars: Alan Watts.        Adult moths: Naturespot

VOLUNTEERS APPRECIATED

Although we have help cutting the grass at Filnore Woods from South Glos Tom and his mighty mowing machine, the arisings have to be raked off in order to bring down the fertility so that next year's wild flowers are not overwhelmed by more vigorous grasses and other flowering plants.  This raking is one of the many jobs that the Filnore Friends volunteers undertake to keep the place rich in biodiversity and pleasant to visit.

So it is good that the RHS '?It's Your Neighbourhood' Scheme has recognised their efforts with a level 5 Outstanding award

 

Well done guys and gals.

MOLE SEASON

Now is the season when molehils appear.  The molehills are not homes but spoil heaps from the tunnels.

Actually moles have to tunnel all year in search of earthworms, leather jackets, wire worms, beetle larvae, etc, or they will starve after a few hours without food.

They live solitary lives except for the pairing season in March and April, after which between two and seven pink and hairless molekins are born.

MOLLUSCS

After a dry spell molluscs (slugs and snails) are delighted 

with the wet conditions following a rain shower. 

This slug (Arion ater rufus) is the orange version of the Great BLACK Slug (Arion ater).  It is one of the larger slugs found in Britain but is not the one that eats your choice garden plants.  It prefers dead plant or animal material and fungi.

Like all slugs and snails it has four tentacles or 'horns'.  The two larger ones are for sight, though molluscs can only distinguish light and dark.  The smaller pair, lower down are for tasting smelling or feeling.  If touched, molluscs will retract their tentacles, and if really upset they will contract to make themselves shorter and fatter.

  

The troublesome ones are small and black or beige. They're often hard to see.  This little blighter looks like  a small blob of dirt until you get close and see how he has been chomping away on an apple.

  

Snails are slightly more popular than slugs, - at least with children.  They have shells of course, while slugs just have a leathery oval at the front end called a mantle. 

SHELL SHOCK

Here we have the Common or Garden Snail with a youngster of a different species.

Snails too have four tentacles and in the image below you can just make out the 'eyes' at the ends of the longer tentacles.

Even these little Banded Snails have tentacles.  The one on the left was very shy.

This species (Cepea nemoralis) also known as the Brown-lipped Snail is very varied in colour: you may find yellow or orange individuals without any stripes and the stripy ones may have a few or a lot of stripes.

There are 90+ species of land snails in the UK and 30+ species of slugs.  They occupy an important niche, providing food for hedgehogs, thrushes and glow-worms, to name a few, and they also have an important composting role, recycling any dead material.