BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE

In the November sunshine, ivy and moss make use of craggy tree bark.  

They cling on without harming the tree.

  Their green-ness shows they are still photosynthesising, making use of the sun to manufacture glucose from water and carbon dioxide.  As a by-product they produce oxygen.

Nature still alive and very GREEN !

CHAMPION CAMPION

Still shining out bravely, a few red campion flowers near the shed.

 

LATE BUG

I was just replenishing the leaflet holder at Filnore Woods when I felt something spiky behind my ear.  I scooped it out on to the pile of leaflets and saw this green creature lying on its back.  

It used its back legs to paddle its way across the paper but when I flipped it over it stayed still for me.

With the help of my Field Studies Council Aidgap 'Guide to Shieldbugs' I identified it as a Hawthorn Shieldbug (Acanthasoma haemorrhoidale).  It has fairly sharp 'shoulders' and a green and brown back with a green triangle in the middle.  It's a bit darker at this late season just before hibernating.  There are little black puncture marks all over its back.

In the spring HSBs mate and lay eggs.  The babies are called nymphs and moult up to five times, changing their appearance each time.  They mature in August and tuck in to their favourite food which is hawthorn berries.  They also like other berries like rowan, whitebeam and cotoneaster.

Like all true bugs they don't have jaws to chew; they have a long, sharp 'rostrum' which is like a syringe.  They inject the berry with saliva to soften it up and then suck in the resulting juice.  If you look at the top photo you can see where the rostrum lies against buggy's tummy while not in use.

BREAKING POPLAR

You may have seen this broken limb on the black poplar just over the stream crossing near the entrance.  It has snapped and the top is resting on the ground but it is still attached to the main trunk - just about.

This was reported to South Glos Council in August, September, twice in October and again now in November.  You can see that the remaining stem is supported by a rather thin bit of wood at the top of the remaining trunk, in this photo taken in October.

That branch has now also snapped and is resting on other trees towards the path.  Photo below was taken in November.

Please exercise care.  A number of other trees have shed branches over the last couple of months. Best not to walk through woods or under big trees in very windy weather.

 

STORMY

On today's walk we got caught in the rain and wind but just managed to keep our umbrellas from turning inside out.  It was quite exciting really.  Another one who enjoys a bit of stormy weather is the Mistle Thrush.  

Photo: Dave T on the bird forum

It is also known as the Storm Cock because even in windy weather it will sing from the top of a tall tree as if it is really enjoying a blow.  The song is like a blackbird's but slower and shorter and without the squeaky bit at the end.  A blackbird who has forgotten the words.

Photo of mistletoe berries: discover wildlife

At this time of year mistle thrushes like mistletoe and holly berries best and will defend a bush against all other birds, with a football rattle alarm call.  But they are quite shy of humans.  You may hear the rattling cry but only as the bird flies off from the berry bush it was plundering.

The song thrush has a quite different voice, repeating each phrase two, three or four times.  Listen to the differing songs of Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush on Maurice Baker's helpful youtube video

PATH MAINTENANCE

One of our important jobs is keeping the paths comfortable for visitors to Filnore Woods.

Here are some of our volunteers - Peter, Jim and Will - having cleared and tidied the path near post 5, leading down to the footbridge.  

 When vegetation grows in from the sides, the path gets narrower and more worn.  A wide path tolerates footfall better and doesn't get muddy so quickly.

INTIMATIONS OF SPRING

A foretaste of spring, already.  

 Fresh, green, ferny leaves of Cow Parsley getting ready for the flurry of flowers in April

Vilner Lane Wood was Thornbury Farm

Just discovered fascinating website  Know Your Place  which includes maps dating back to tithe maps of 1841.  

Looking at Thornbury on the 1844 OS map, it shows the site of today's Vilner Lane Wood to be part of Thornbury Farm.

On the map below you can see the former railway station, Rosemount House, the bathing place, which is now The Bathings retirement flats, and Vilner Lane.  I have marked in green the site of Vilner Lane Wood, sister to Filnore Woods.

We shall have to change the name we gave to Vilnore Lane Wood because it is so similar to Filnore Woods and  people find it confusing.

 

YAWNY TAWNIES

    They may look sleepy but at night they are totally alert.  At this time of year, just after dusk, tawny owls are calling to each other.  They don't exactly say "Tuwhit tuwoo", more like 

 "HOO!  Hoo-oo-oo-oo-oo"

 and the typical female reply is a sort of whooshing, whistling shriek, 

usually written as 'keewick'.

Listen to the calls recorded by Steve Hawkeye on youtube

They have a surprisingly large wingspan with fringed feathers that allow them to swoop silently on their mousy prey.

FIRE DAMAGE

Although traces of the fire that caused this damage have long since disappeared, the trees have been permanently weakened.  They keep growing and trying to cover the damaged wood by growing bark over the wound from the sides.  But this open wound is just what some fungi are looking for and rot will eventually set in.  The trees will probably break before they die.

Additionally the unseen damage caused by baking the fine roots, which are all in the top 600mm / 2 feet of the soil, can prove fatal.

Unfortunately the fire starters also spoil the site for wildlife by using dead wood for fuel, which would otherwise have formed a habitat for various invertebrates . . . 

. . . . and they sometimes spoil it for other visitors to the woods by destroying the marker posts and the QR stickers which tell you what to look for.  

Here are the remains of post 6 photographed recently by Lindsay.  

 

SUMMER LEFT-OVERS

On a walk today I saw several cheery flowers defying winter.  Some Ox-eye daisies.

One of the hawkbits

Hogweed seems to go on all through cold weather.

 

NOVEMBER MOTH

You may see the odd Comma butterfly or a Red Admiral but most butterflies are overwintering now either as adults, pupae, larvae or eggs.  

Several moths, however are on the wing and the obvious one to look out for is the November Moth.  They fly at night in October and November but you may see one in the day, perched on a tree trunk or somewhere else where it can melt into the background.

The November Moth is quite variable in colour and has a few close relatives that look a bit similar but spotting any moth at this time of year is heartening.

Here are two photos showing different colouration, from the Butterfly Conservation website, kindly donated by members.

photo: Peter Maton

photo: Ian Leach

There is also a December Moth but you are unlikely to see it unless you have a light trap.  It's dark brown, almost black, with a few white lines.

A GREY DAY CAN BE GRADE A

Wild Clematis becomes Old Man's Beard in autumn.  Nothing wrong with old grey men !

Grey is a dignified colour so what is this small forest of grey stems ?

The feathery remains of willow herb seedheads.

Female ash trees are heavy with ash keys.

Next year's seeds hang like bunches of keys.

Which key is the right one?

 

METELLINA SEGMENTATA

Also known as Meta segmentata, this spider is most numerous in autumn.  You can tell she's a female because she is nice and fat and lacks the clumpy palps of the male, which are held like boxing gloves in front.  

 Metellina is very variable in colour but always has a patterned folium like an oak leaf on her back.  

It is the commonest orb web spider species in northern Europe.

HOLLY IS JOLLY

Holly berries ready for Christmas already

Unfortunately (for us) the birds will have gobbled them all by then.

So enjoy them now before the birds do.

 

WHITE DEAD NETTLE

Pure snowy white, flowers of the white deadnettle defy the cold weather.   

 

TEASELS

Food for goldfinches and such, these teasels were at Oldbury-on-Severn.

The prickly seedheads follow green and blue flowerheads.

Watch out!  The stems and leaves are prickly too.

Next year's teasels are flat rosettes of warty green leaves with prickles on the underside.