TESCO LIMES

Lime trees all have similar fruits: a bunch of little balls attached on a slender stalk to a leaf-like bract

As they ripen, the bracts turn gold or brown in contrast to the heart-shaped leaves that are only just beginning to turn.

I took these pics at the majestic row of common limes in the Thornbury Tesco grounds.  Common lime is a hybrid of our two native limes, the large-leaved and the small leaved.   It is the most commonly planted tree in British towns.

 

OH HOPPY DAY !

On 9th September it was still sunny and warm.  This character was sitting on a wall, sunning himself.  It may have become too cold now for him to survive.

Although there are only about 30 species of grasshoppers and crickets recorded in Britain, they are quite tricky to distinguish.  There are 600 species in Europe and 17000 worldwide.

Not a meadow grasshopper because they have shorter wings on top.  Probably a common field grasshopper.  His song is described in my book by Michael Chinery as "short chirps, like time signal pips at a lower pitch".

I like his descriptions of different grasshopper songs:

"like the sound of winding a clock",  "like a sewing machine",  "rather like an approaching moped", "loud and metallic like an old-fashioned dentist's drill"

 

SKY BLUE SLOES

Like fragments of the blue sky, sloes are ripening on the blackthorn bushes.

They are black underneath this blue, waxy bloom, if you rub it off.  

They look so tasty but . . . . . 

 

IVY

Ivy drumsticks will soon develop into flowers

Each flower has five sepals, no petals and five stamens.  In the centre is one of the best of the few nectar sources available to autumn feeding insects.  You will see crowds of them buzzing over the ivy flowers.

Gradually the centre darkens and as the petals and stamens fall off we are left with a bunch of black berries - food for birds and small mammals right into spring.

One particular mining bee - the IVY mining bee - is a recent (2021) arrival in Britain and feeds almost exclusively on ivy flowers.

They are quite striking with a furry, orange thorax and a brightly striped abdomen, so quite easy to recognise.  I have seen several in Thornbury already this year.

There are several videos on youtube and if you put in 'ivy mining bee' I would recommend 'Bringing nature to you, - the ivy mining be' with Susan Simmonds.  She describes clearly their very special behaviours while lying on her lawn surrounded by bees.  Or you can just click on this link

Ivy mining bee video

If you are as fascinated by insects as I am, there is also a thorough slide show on identifying insects on ivy, including butterflies, hoverflies, other flies, wasps, honey bees and solitary bees, like the IMB, on this link.

Insects on ivy

ACORNS & MARBLE GALLS

If you see a young oak with spherical nut-type things on, these are not acorns, nor are they oak apples.  They are marble galls caused by a tiny gall wasp laying eggs on the shoots. 

 In autumn they turn brown as the female insects emerge 

and fly to find a turkey oak to lay eggs on.

But there are plenty of acorns this year too.

 

You may also notice oak powdery mildew, a fungal presence which can slow down growth of the tree if it spreads too much.  It is very common and develops in warm, dry overcast conditions.

 

THORNBURY SPECKLED FARM WOOD

Thornbury Farm Wood, close to Filnore Woods, is between the Tesco car park and the Leisure Centre car park.  It was saved from development in 2020 and continues to be a refuge for nature and an important wildlife link between the town and the surrounding countryside.  Krunch (local youth organisation) are now running forest school sessions there.

Looking at the excellent sign, designed by Christian Tait, I spotted something perched on the gate

A Speckled Wood butterfly.  They do like to sunbathe.

They have several broods through the year so they can be found from March to October.  They like the dappled shade of woods, leafy lanes and gardens but the caterpillars feed on various grasses, so a mixed habitat of woodland and grassland, such as Filnore Woods, suits them well.

They occasionally come to flowers for nectar but prefer aphid honeydew from the tops of trees.  Alan caught this one feeding on a blackberry, which is quite unusual.  

Photo: Allan Watts

The butterfly is upside down.

AUTUMN FRUITS

Our native Rowan trees (aka mountain ash) are quickly denuded of berries by birds. The Chinese and Japanese varieties keep their berries longer.

These are the natives.

Rose hips were used as a source of vitamin C, especially during war years, but their preparation is rather laborious.

Hawthorn fruits like the rowans and roses are not entirely smooth; they have a little tuft on the end where the flower was, like apples. Botanically these are known as pomes rather than berries.

A big crop can make the whole tree look rusty.

   

True berries have a smooth skin like a tomato.  These berries pictured below are Woody Nightshade also known as Bittersweet.  Apparently they taste bitter at first with a sweet aftertaste BUT DON'T TRY THEM as they are poisonous.

Black Bryony and White Bryony, which scramble over other plants, are also poisonous but I am not sure which these are.  Should have checked the leaves.

Guelder Rose with its maple-like leaves has been plundered by birds but there are still a few to see.  These berries are only mildly poisonous but probably best to lay off them.

Bramble fruits are botanically 'drupelets' but we all know them as blackberries.  There are still a few left to pick but by October they will have lost their sweetness.

And as well as ivy berries, the fruits of dogwood are black when ripe.

 

BASTARD SERVICE

 This the Bastard Service Tree (that's its name - really), growing in Chapel Street, Thornbury has one of the most spectacular displays of berries.

  

  Unfortunately they do not last long.  

You can also identify it by the leaves, which are lobed like the Swedish Whitebeam or even a bit like an oak, BUT . . . the first two or more lobes are separate from the rest of the leaf.

  

The back of the leaf is paler, showing that it's a member of the whitebeam group of the Sorbus genus, Sorbus thuringiaca, and so also related to rowan trees.

DELICATE TOADSTOOLS

This flush of tiny grooved fungi on long thin stalks, probably a Mycena species, was emerging from the woodland floor in the New Plantation at Filnore Woods.

 

META BUT NOT ZUCKERBERG

Meta segmentata is the name of this pretty little spider, although it is more often called Metallina segmentata (little meta).  Yes it is pretty!  If you found a flower with this patterning you would be delighted. 

It's  the legs, isn't it, that puts people off spiders.

This one was sitting on a yellow flag iris leaf.

Spiders have two sections to their bodies: an abdomen containing most of their internal organs and a cephalothorax which combines the head functions (eyes, jaws, etc) with the thorax, which is where all the legs are attached.

Metallina's abdomen has an attractive oak leaf pattern called a folium, with two darker triangles in front of them.  The cephalothorax has a dark shape like a tuning fork.  You can also see a row of black eyes at the front.

Meta/ Metallina segmentata is very common in late summer and autumn, when males wait quietly in the corner of a female web until a big enough fly gets caught.  Then they will race to the fly, wrap it up and present it to the female while mating with her.  Cunning eh?

It's dangerous though.  There may be other bigger males that come along and duff the smaller ones up, AND the successful male may be gobbled up by the female.

This one had a body only about 5mm long, so an average male. 

SPARROW HAWK

Alan spotted this sparrow hawk on his lawn.

What's it up to?  Well these bird remains were all that was left of her prey when the hawk had gone.  Sparrow hawks chase small birds such as sparrows, finches and tits, through bushes and across gardens.  They are very fast and manoeuvrable.

This is what they look like close to.  The female is larger than the male, about the size of a blackbird and a feral pigeon respectively.

Photo source unknown

 

FIRE DAMAGE

We were surprised at how quickly our leaflets were disappearing from the leaflet dispenser, but when we looked behind the wreckage of the big den at the top of the new plantation. 

  

We discovered the remains of a fire

In fact there were three large fireplaces . . . .

. . . . and the fire raisers had clearly used leaflets as kindling.

Starting fires can be fun, of course but in a wood it damages foliage, bark and especially roots.