A last wag of the tail

February wags its tail for the last time with these lambstail catkins on the hazel.

These have shed all their pollen but some are still sending out clouds of yellow dust.

The hilltop pond returns

True to form, the hilltop pond has benefited from recent rainfall and has re-appeared.  No frogspawn yet.  This is the view as you enter down the bramble corridor from the top meadow.  

From the wide end.   It looks as if it was wider a few days ago but has already evaporated a bit.

From the narrow end, it doesn't look much but you can see why the water collects here.

Spring starshine

Spring star-shine

The little Celandine

This cousin of the buttercup, soon to be sparkling on many a grassy bank.

Common Ferns

Of the seven ferns recorded at Filnore Woods, these three are still very visible in winter.

Harts Tongue Fern is evergreen but gets increasingly tatty towards spring,when the new fronds emerge.  It hardly looks like a fern at all as the leaves (or more correctly 'fronds') are undivided.  It favours alkaline sols and will grow on limestone rocks and walls. 

You can see a few male ferns in the photo as well.

Here below is a Male Fern in summer.  There are several similar 'bipinnate' ferns where each frond is divided first into pinnae and then each pinna is divided into pinnules .   In the male fern the pinnules are quite simply shaped with no frills or thumbs or further divisions.  

The picture below, taken today, shows the underside of part of a male fern frond.  You can see small brown pimples, up to seven on each pinnule.  This is where the spores (like seeds) are produced. 

The other most common fern is Bracken.  It is the only one that has a stalk with fronds branching off at intervals.  It can easily reach six feet high.

Although its dead foliage gives a splash of lighter colour in the dark days of winter, it is very invasive and hard to eliminate so we are not that pleased to see it spreading.

We also have Lady Fern, Broad Buckler Fern, Soft Shield Fern and one small specimen of Polypody at Filnore.  

Ladies on Valentine's Day

As it was a sunny day I did a bit of tidying in the shed at Filnore Woods.  " What's this mucky old bit of cardboard?" I wondered and behold - a host of spotty ladybirds.  They must have been hibernating in the shed.

Looking closely, I could see they were very variable, including one black one with red spots.  What a jolly spring sight.  But just a minute!  I think maybe these are harlequin ladybirds, a recent (2004) arrival in the UK and not altogether welcome as they eat almost any other insects including our native ladybirds (43 species). 

They were relatively large , greater than 5mm long, and had that pair of curved white marks on the pronotum, the black bit between the red and black elytra and the tiny black head.  These are characteristics of the Harlequin.  But I'm not quite sure.  Can anyone help?

Anyway they quickly disappeared.  I didn't see anyone fly off but the cardboard was soon almost deserted again.

The Blushing Bracket

On a fallen willow branch  in the old tree nursery section of Filnore Woods I found this array of Daedaleopsis confragosa, the Blushing Bracket. 

This species usually grows on dead willow.  The brackets fan out horizontally so you can tell that they didn't grow on this branch until after it had fallen.

Light and dark brown concentric rings add to the sea-shell appearance.

I picked this one off to show the underside.

You can see that where my thumb bruised the white flesh it stained a reddish brown.  This is what the name 'Blushing Bracket' refers to.  It is also called the 'False Maze Gill', because the labyrinth pattern of pores on the underside is a bit like the underside of another fungus called the maze gill.

Below is a photo of the underside of a true Maze Gill (Daedalea quercina) which grows on oak and sweet chestnut.

Crow garlic

In our coppice coupe there are several small clumps of grassy leaves.

This is Crow Garlic or Wild Onion.

The flowers appear in June and July.  Sometimes the flower head is just made up of bulbils - tiny bulbs which will grow into new plants.

The picture below shows clusters of bulbils and was taken in July in long grass at the viewpoint.

Hogs in the snow

What are these mysterious pom-poms?

Skeletons of hogweed  .  .  .  .

.  .  .  .  when the seeds have dropped  .  .  .  .

.  .  .  .  from summer flower heads

Seasonal transformation (near post 10)

Who would believe the transformation from February to March?

And from February to April?

Rosebay now and then (near post 14)

The seedheads of rosebay willow herb now in the snow .  .  .  . 

 .  .  .  .  .  and back in July

Snow to usher in February

A few pics from a morning walk round Filnore Woods today:

Two large ash trees either side of the main entrance

Trees small, medium and large

The open grassland

Looking across towards Thornbury from the viewpoint.