GROUND IVY

It's no relation of ivy nor does it even look like ivy but Ground Ivy does keep close to the ground.  It is often rather shy, hiding amongst other plants.  Here it is, nestling amongst goosegrass and stinging nettles.

The rounded leaves have scalloped edges.  Although the flowering stems stand erect, other stems creep along the ground, rooting as they go so that a plant soon spreads and becomes a clump.

 

DAWN CHORUS STARTERS

Sunday 2nd May is the official dawn chorus day this year but if you get up and out by 5.00 pm you can hear it now.

The earliest you will hear are the fluty songs of blackbirds 

Photo: unknown

 and if you're lucky a songthrush, who will repeat each phrase two or three times before trying another one.

Photo: unknown

and the other starters are the robins; a quieter song but still very tuneful

Photo: Nadya Webster

If you can't get up and out, try opening the window

NOTICE THIS

As well as members of our volunteer team, we are grateful to all those who act as individuals to maintain Filnore Woods.  Nearly all the many dog walkers pick up their dog's poos 

AND TAKE THEM AWAY.  

And a number of people pick up litter and keep us informed of dodgy trees.  Special thanks to Lynn and Lindsay for this,

and even more thanks to Jim who not only picks up litter but has created a new sign for the site, built a dam to retain water in the hilltop pond, supplied and spread woodchip on the footbridge steps and is engaged on many other maintenance and enhancement jobs.

Just so you know where you are!

The pond dam under construction

Steps up from the footbridge - newly woodchipped

 

WHY DID THE COW SLIP?

"Where the bee sucks there suck I

In a cowslip's bell I lie"

so sings Ariel in The Tempest.

So look out for fairies in the Filnore cowslips.

 

DEAD WHITE

A bumper year for white deadnettle

The leaves resemble stinging nettle leaves 

but they DO NOT STING

 

SNAPPING BUTTERFLIES

Photographing flowers and trees is relatively easy - they don't run away.  But butterflies are a different matter.  When you see one at rest snap it before you get any closer.  Then get a bit closer and snap again and so on.

The last snap before it flies away may be your best

And then crop it.

 It's even better if you can get it in focus ! ! ! !

Butterflies seen already this year: Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Large White, Orange-tip, Holly Blue.

Identify your butterfly with this chart  from Butterfly Conservation.

OAK CATKINS

Oak trees will soon be joining with their leafy cousins by opening their leaf buds.

But already they are showing a yellowy green colour as their catkins open.  

 Like so many trees the male flowers have these dangly 'caterpillars' of flowers producing millions, nay TRILLIONS, of pollen grains in the hope that one of them will stick to a female flower and develop into an acorn.

WILD PEAR BLOSSOM

Wild pear blossom near post 3 opposite the memorial limes.

Looks better when you are there.

 

AN EARLY-FLOWERING TREE

The beautiful  racemes of white flowers on the Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) are showing now at Filnore Woods just beyond the stream near the toolstore.  

The tree is overlooked most of the year with its rather ordinary 'leaf-shaped' leaves.  But it can be identified, like lots of cherries, by the little pimples, usually two, on the leaf stalk where it joins the main blade of the leaf.

It may not be as outrageously pink as the common 'Kanzan' variety of Japanese flowering cherry  below, but it has a graceful, understated elegance IMHO.

SLEEPING BEAUTY AWAKES

In winter all worker wasps and males are killed by the frosts and the lack of food, but the queens survive by hibernating in a sheltered spot - often in our homes.  The buzz of a wasp is a lazier sound than a busy busy fly and her flight is more of a drift.

So she is quite easy to catch by placing a glass over her and sliding a card underneath.  She'll be a bit dozy anyway until she has stocked up on some nectar.

This character appeared in my kitchen.  After buzzing around a bit she settled down for her photo op and then I let her go in the garden.  Hope it wasn't too cold for her.  I like wasps.  I admire them for their nest building abilities and they keep the garden pests down by feeding them to their babies.

Wasps are not furry like bees, and they have a very narrow waist.  This spring queen is much longer in the body than the workers she will give birth to.

 She will start a small nest by chewing up bits of wood and making a little, hollow ball.  Inside she will lay some eggs and feed the larvae that hatch, on small invertebrates, till they are big enough to do the shopping themselves.  Then she will settle down to egg-laying for the rest of the summer.

BLACK AND WHITE

Blackthorn's white flowers - miraculous this year.

 

NOT LEAVES BUT FLOWERS

The early trees like elder and hawthorn are well underway but what looks like lime green foliage on the Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is really the flowers.

It's not really native to Britain but is a European tree and very common around Thornbury.

Once the leaves open it could be taken for a Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), to which it is closely related, but Sycamore leaves (not shown here) come out before the flowers.

Photo: Marianne Mogendorff

 

VOLUNTEERS BACK AT WORK

Last Sunday the Friends of Filnore Woods volunteers turned out in strength.  

Work was started on restoring several paths.

We also cut some hazel in Cuckoo Pen to supply a large number of stakes and poles required for customers and for further path repairs next work morning, Wednesday 28th April.

Here are some of the workers in the dappled shade on a cool but sunny morning.

100+ four foot stakes for a customer

 

GREEN WYCH CONFETTI

Green confetti on the ground tells you you are under or near to a Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra).

These are the fruits which follow the unobtrusive flowers in March.

The tree can look as if it is in bright green leaf in early April, when bunches of these fruits are on every twig, but by now most of the fruits have fallen and the leaves are opening.

The wych elm pictured here is in the Leisure Centre car park near the skatepark.

 

JUMPING ZEBRA

A sunny day can bring out all sorts of invertebrates.  This tiny spider (Salticus senicus) likes a warm wall or path.

 Often called the zebra spider because of its black and white colouring, it is one of those that catch their prey by jumping on them.     

Watch her jump in this slow motion video

DANDELION

The great dandelion flush of April is under way.

They flower most of the year but now is their peak time.

As gardeners we ae not so keen but along the roadside verges and in fields they are magnificent.  One of our beautidful wild flowers that is NOT in decline for once.

This one is still untangling its centre.

These two are fully open.

Each of the strap-like petals is really a very small flower or floret with four grooves and five teeth at the end.

There are many plants in this family with similar yellow flowers, but only the true dandelion has those hollow stems full of white latex.

The leaves can be used as a salad or as a diuretic medicine, the flowers can be used to make a country wine and the roasted roots were used as a coffee substitute during war time food shortages.

But I just love to see 'em - except in my flower and vegetable garden at home.

Each dandelion is a great source of nectar for bees and beetles, 

although we unkindly underestimate it as a weed

 

The dangly catkins on birch trees are the male flowers.  They will elongate and produce pollen.

Meanwhile the female catkins are developing.  You can see them top right in the picture above.  They are very small at the moment but when the male catkins drop off on to the floor, the fertilised females will fatten up with trillions of seeds.

Birch trees produce so many seeds in the hope that some of them will find a nice place with bare soil and lots of bright light.  Birch is one of the first species to colonise cleared land.

Meanwhile birch seeds are a great food source for birds like coal tits and siskins.