WINTER TREES 6 : CHERRY

On all but the youngest cherry trees the horizontal lines on the trunk distinguish the numerous cherry species.  They are joined up rows of breathing holes known as lenticels.

Another feature of cherry trees in winter are the multiple buds on the twigs, where the flowers will later appear.  They are in there, waiting for the right time to burst open.

 

PENNIES ON THE WALL

Nice, juicy, green leaves of Wall Pennywort provide another promise of spring.  The leaves are round like pennies and the plant usually grows on walls, cliffs or steep banks.

The leaves are unusual because the stalks go to the middle of the leaf, where there is a sort of dimple.  Its possible resemblance to your tummy button gives it the other name of Navelwort or in Latin Umbilicus rupestris .  I prefer Wall Pennywort.

At this time of year you may still find the dead flower stalks from last summer.

 

SIGNS OF SPRING: DUNNOCK SINGING

Hooray !  Today I heard a dunnock singing, not just its single note contact call.  Most song birds are quiet in winter, except for robins and wrens, so hearing the dunnock launching into its 'squeaky wheelbarrow wheel' song is a sure sign that spring is on its way.

Dunnocks are small and brown and secretive.  They creep about under bushes looking for invertebrates and also seeds in winter.  They are not keen on bird tables and feeders but will hop about underneath, collecting what they can.

Find this video on youtube

Dunnock Song - (Hedge Sparrow)

YouTube · Maurice Baker

1 minute, 28 seconds

 · 21 Apr 2014

 

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

Don't forget to join in the Big Garden Birdwatch today or tomorrow. 

Every watcher's count is important, even if it's negative.

One hour in the garden or looking out of the window.

Full instructions from the RSPB website.

Download the details including an identification guide here:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

WINTER GNATS

Sitting in the warm sun on one of those cold, crisp mornings recently I became aware of lots of little flies drifting about apparently aimlessly.  They were like tiny golden fairies, lit by the sun behind them,  but unfortunately I was unable to catch this phenomenon on camera.

Some of them gathered in small clouds, dancing up and down.  What could be happening?

Photo: University of Wisconsin

Well a bit of research showed me that these were Winter Gnats.  They are pretty well the only insects that brave the winter cold.  They are closely related to crane flies but much much smaller, between 5 and 10mm long.

The dancing clouds are apparently males showing off to passing females in the hope of a mating partner.

Here is a male.  You can see the two claspers at the end of his body, which are to help hang on to a mate when he finds one.  The scale on the right is millimetres.

 

And below is a female with a pointed ovipositor at her tail end, with which she would have laid her eggs in rotting vegetation, the ideal home and diet for the larvae.  Both photos are of dead insects and as they are so small and delicate some of the six legs are missing.

Two photos: Erica McAllister for BBC Wildlife Magazine

I compiled this yesterday morning and then there was a brief bit on the last ten minutes of Winterwatch last night, which showed them beautifully so do check it out.

BBC Wildlife Magazine had this picture of the little guys highlit by sunlight.

So ethereal

ROOKS

One of the good things about winter is the chance it brings to admire the structure of braod-leaved trees.  It also gives us the chance to see things in trees like the round balls of mistletoe and the nests of some birds, usually corvids like crows (a nest of twigs on its own), magpies (a domed nest often with a roof) and rooks who nest communally in rookeries. 

As I live near the Mundy Playing Fields, I enjoy seeing the repair and rebuilding in the hybrid poplar trees by the stream every year.  They usually manage about 14 nests.

 As you can see in the photo above, they are building in one poplar but not the one on the left.  And they don't like the upward branches of the lombardy poplar, nor the alder to the right.

Unfortunately one of their favourite poplar trees fell over this year.

But nothing daunted they are building in an oak - four nests so far.

  

And in a nearby ash tree - three nests.

 

So together with six in the poplar that makes 13 already and they are still building.  

"We build up high, away from predators but we feed down low in fields where animals graze. Kaaa"

 

MUTE SWANS, COB & PEN

A pair of mute swans by the canal near Frampton-on-Severn

The male, or cob, has a slightly bigger black knob at the base of the bill than his mate, the pen.

They do not hoot or whistle like bewicks or whooper swans but the sound of their wings as they fly by is very evocative.