Pignut, Cow Parsley and Hogweed

 Smaller than its cousin the cow parsley, Pignut is only as tall as the grass.  I've cropped the photo so that you can just make out the finely divided filigree leaves near the bottom of the right hand picture.

Cow Parsley is much taller and the leaves are more ferny

Their big relation, the hogweed, is not in flower yet and the leaves are huge.

Blushing Bracket

While clearing some dead willow stems on the path through the old tree nursery at Filnore, we found some crusty old brackets of Daedaleopsis confragosa.    They are usually found on dead willow.  The upper side is orange with concentric rings of yellow.

Underneath, the flesh will bruise to a blood-red colour when the bracket is fresh, giving it the name of 'The blushing Bracket, but these were too old to blush.

The pores are slightly elongated so that the pattern is a bit like another fungus called 'The Maze- gill'.  So this species is sometimes called 'The False Maze-gill'.

Lamb's tongues

 Ribwort plantain named for the pronouned veins on the leaves, is also known as lamb's tongue. 

 They last a good time, with a ring of flowers moving slowly up the conical flowerhead.

Den building season

The den-building season has started.

 

Teacher, blues singer and friend

The great tit has a variety of calls but the most easily recognised is the teechah teechah teechah song.  This has earnt him the name 'teacher bird'.

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The Blue Tit's song is less easy to describe.  
The alarm call is a rather grumpy chatter like a machine gun.

The 'song', such as it is, is described by Tim Lee of the 'Friends of Aston's Eyot' as 

Blue Tee Tee Tee Tit Tit Tit.

Try Tim's helpful mnemonics for birdsong via this link:

http://friendsofastonseyot.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/bird-song-tips-pdf.pdf

There is also a  'blue-blue' call    'blue-blue      blue-blue'

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The smaller, Coal Tit's song is a bit like the Great Tit's but more wistful, like 'fitchew fitchew fitchew'.  It's rather more shy and retiring and can often be found in a conifer tree.

Sycamore

In winter, sycamore can be recognised by its green buds in pairs.  Wild Service Tree is the only other native tree with green buds and they are positioned alternately along the stem, not in opposite pairs like sycamore.

Sycamore seedlings produce two seed leaves at first, and it's not until the third pair of leaves that they begin to look like proper sycamores. 

You can see why sycamore is such a successful coloniser.  It produces so much viable seed.

These seedlings have germinated under a big mother tree in the hedge at Filnore, but they won't all survive.

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The above pictures were taken in March, but in mid-April those seedlings had developed their second pair of leaves.  You can see they only have one point.

Whereas in their second year they develop their true leaves with five points.

We have rather an infestation of sycamore in the new plantation near post 2.  We shall have to pull them out or they will take over, shading out other species.

Ash regeneration is also strong but ash is easier to control and doesn't produce the heavy shade of sycamore.

Broad Buckler Fern

 In areas of Filnore Woods where the soil is slightly more acidic, you can find the triangular fronds of Broad Buckler Fern. 

The fronds are darker green than most ferns and the pinnae (like leaflets) are more spreading and widely spaced.

Looking closely you can see that the fern is tripinnate, i.e. the frond is divided into pinnae, which in turn are divided into pinnules and these in turn are divded into pinnulets.  This distiguishes Broad Buckler Fern from other common ferns.

Another clue is that the edges of the little pinnulets are usually curled back slightly, giving a convex look to the foliage.

Spruce

This Norway spruce, the common Christmas tree, is just pushing out its new spring foliage, which is a paler green than last year's needles. 

Although European, it is not strictly native to Britain, but we planted it in March 2015 to encourage the birds that like conifers, such as goldcrests and coal tits.

The tree is holding its own amongst the rosebay, along with two scots pines that we planted at the same time.

Early birds

Last Sunday nine of us assembled at 5.00 am to listen to the dawn chorus. It was dark when we set off on our walk and only Blackbirds and a Songthrush could be heard.  but we soon heard Robins, Wood Pigeons, Wrens, Crows and Herring Gulls.

As sunrise arrived we heard three of the warbler gang: Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs in the woodland and a Whitethroat out in the more open grassy area.

  

Chiffchaff                                        Whitethroat

    

                                                                        Blackcap

A Collared Dove, Dunnocks, a Chaffinch, a Blue Tit and a Greenfinch were also heard and a Kestrel was seen hovering and moving on, hovering again and so on, until eventually it dived down, presumably on to an unlucky vole.

We finished our stroll around 6.15 am and returned virtuously to our respective breakfasts.

Hazel stool

The hazels in the hedge have been cut down as low as practicable in order to promote new growth from ground level.  this will be laid into a hedge in a few years' time.

Hazels are multi-stemmed and as they mature the stems are squashed together.  When cut, the cross section shows a fascinatingly contorted pattern