GREEN SHOOTS

 Nervously peeping out of the leaf litter on the woodland floor, come the first green shoots of spring.

Wild arum aka Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies: always the first.

New shoots of Dog's Mercury.

And the beloved Bluebells.

 

RSPB BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch runs from Friday 28 to Sunday 30th January this year. 

(Sunday looks the best weather) 

All you have to do is watch for one hour in your garden, local park or community woodland (!) and record how many of each species you see.  

More info available here.

Photos and identification tips are here.

It's free and you don't have to join the RSPB.

GERMINATION

Looks as though some of the wildflower seeds sown last year are germinating.

These are up by the seat dedicated to Allan Burberry

Unfortunately they look a bit nibbled - probably rabbits, which seem to be on the increase again.

MISTLETOE

The mistletoe on my apple trees tends to produce the best berries now, a bit late for Christmas.  

The seeds are spread by birds, who enjoy the berries but wipe the sticky seeds off on the branches of various trees.  The Mistle Thrush is even named for it.

Actually it is apparently Blackcaps who are the more important spreaders of mistletoe seeds.

 

Bird images: RSPB

Mistletoe in lime trees near St Mary's Church

And on a Robinia (false acacia) tree in the cemetery

LIME TREES AT DUSK IN WINTER

Mature Lime trees typically have an upright habit with several vertical main stems.  These are some of the dozen specimens along the old railway wall in the grounds of the Thornbury Tesco.

  

The twigs are typically zig-zag between the rounded buds, which can turn red in sunny locations.

The zig-zag often persists into the young branches.  Note the zig-zag twigs in the photo below, top right and bottom left.

Some limes retain last year's fruits attached to the bracts that are meant to assist their distribution.  These seem to be waiting for spring.

The lime species most frequently planted in streets and parks is the Common Lime (Tilia x europaea) a natural hybrid between our two native limes the small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) and the broad-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos).  They are quite hard to tell apart.

 The common lime often carries clumps of mistletoe in its branches.  These two are down by St Mary's Church.  The one on the left has been distorted by mistletoe and the one on the right has been heavily pruned so their shapes are a bit odd.

  

One last aid to confirm identification:  some limes, especially common limes, have sprouts round the base or even up the trunk.

Sorry these photos are so gloomy but I noticed the trees in the late afternoon.

POPLAR BUDS ARE POINTY

Some broad-leaved trees are as easy to identify in winter as they are when in full leaf.    You've still got the shape of the tree, the bark, remains of fruits hanging on and, most helpfully, THE BUDS.

Here is the end of a branch on a hybrid black poplar.  Notice how the twigs turn up at the end.

Each twig terminates in a clustering row of large, pointed buds.

 Now go and find one.  Hybrid Black Poplars are very common but they are large spreading trees, quite a different shape from the narrow vertical Lombardy Poplars.

Lombardy poplars

REDWINGS NOW

 I saw a little thrush with a bright white eyebrow today, hopping along the grassy path in front of me.

It was relatively tame and when it flew up on to the fence I could see the chestnut red on its side.

This shows up when it flies if you are in the right position . . . . .

. . . . . but the white eyebrow is the thing that I usually notice first with redwings - for that's what it was.

These little chaps are winter visitors to the UK, after our berries when their native lands in Scandinavia and northern Europe are too cold.

OBJECTS IN TREES

As mentioned in my earlier post (Dec 6th), rooks are already building their nests.  They like to build together in rookeries.  You can tell ii it's a rookery by the noisy presence of rooks chatting away.  They used to prefer elms, and people worried when all the big elm trees were killed by Dutch Elm disease, that the rooks would have nowhere to go.  But they quickly adapted and can be found in all sorts of large trees: poplars, oaks, beeches, sycamores and even ash trees.  But ash too is destined to disappear from our landscapes with the progress of ash die-back disease.

A rookery

Another phenomenon, which is present all year but shows up more when the leaves are off is mistletoe.  Mature bunches of mistletoe are more or less  spherical, like large footballs.  Mistletoe grows on lime, robinia, poplar, apple, silver maple, and occasionally hawthorn, Norway maple and the druids' favourite - oak.  Here it is on poplar and lime.

  
Mistletoe in poplar and lime

There is a fungus that invades birch trees and causes a sudden eruption of short-lived shoots.  They die each winter and more shoots join them in the spring building a a spiky cluster known as a witch's broom. The tree can co-exist with the fungus for many years, developing more and more 'brooms'

Witch's brooms on birch

On willows some of the catkins occasionally go a bit wild and become a mass of frantic shoots like the witch's broom on birch.  These are mossy willow catkin galls.  Hiding amongst the leaves in summer they are easily missed . . . . . 

Photo: naturespot

. . . . but in winter they show up on the twigs.

Mossy willow catkin galls

All the black and white photos were taken in Thornbury.

 

SIGNS OF SPRING and REMNANTS OF SUMMER

Cow Parsley is already spreading  its ferny leaves although it won't produce its flowers until May

The first tree to leaf up is elder and it's started already in sheltered corners.  In the photo below you can just see a couple of pale leaves on the left.  Not the dark green ivy leaves on the wall.  

The bark of a maturing elder bush or tree has these joints on it that look a bit like skeletal arthritic knees.

Daisy means 'the day's eye' because not only do the flowers follow the sun's position in the sky but they close up at night, waiting for the morrow.

In contrast the leaves of wall pennywort or navelwort are evergreen.  The round penny-shaped leaves are unique in having the stalk in the middle, which is why there is a central dimple like a navel.

The dead flower stalks are a rich wine red, though they are greenish-white when they flower in summer.  The plant likes damp walls and steep banks.

NEW INTERPRETATION BOARD

Who can these strange men be, digging holes near the twin birch trees by our main entrance?

Ha!  

After several years (we first asked for a replacement noticeboard in September 2017), the new interpretation panel has been designed, manufactured and installed by these guys from South Glos Council.

It looks very smart so hurry up and visit before anything happens to it.

Perhaps we should get our order in now for the next replacement.

Photos: Alan Watts

The text is slightly adapted from the original by Allan Burberry

 

FROST BEADS

I saw this frosted grass and noticed a little bead of ice at the tip of many of the grass blades

At first I thought it was just frozen dew, but why the big bead at the tip of the blade?

Perhaps it was a drop of water exuded by the plant in the night, before the temperature dropped.  When ground conditions are very wet, sometimes the roots suck in more than the plant can hold and root pressure causes a droplet to form at the tip of the leaf blade.  This is called guttation.

 Intriguing and beautiful.

THAT'S SNUFF THANK YOU

We found this in the debris at the bottom of the hedge.

Candle Snuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) just a few millimetres tall, grows on dead wood on the ground.  The base is black and hairy while the tip is white and powdery.

By recycling dead wood this fungus, and many more, enhance the soil.  Contrariwise the presence of dead wood enables us to enjoy the myriad species of fungus the feed on it.

Real candle snuff on a candle is the partially burnt part of the wick, which this fungus does resemble - a bit.

HEDGING

At last we are tackling the section of hedge we coppiced five years ago.

Large amounts of dead wood were removed from the base of the hedge and some overhanging branches cut back to let in light.

Then we set about banging in stakes, previously harvested during coppicing operations, and began to lay the upright growths by partially cutting them at the base and weaving them between the stakes.

We are doing our best to make a silk purse from this sow's ear and learning as we go.

 

NOT SO PRIM

 Primroses already braving the cold

PATH EDGING REPAIRS

We use natural materials as far as possible, harvested from the woods, to maintain the paths at Filnore.  The stakes used to peg the poles in place decay after a few years but we resist the urge to use fungicide when we have so much wood available.

Here an edging pole has fallen off.  Four new stakes are hammered in to hold it back in place to prevent the raised path from eroding.

The projecting tops are sawn off . . . . .

And there it is.  Job done - until the next bit rots and breaks.