DENIZENS

Hot chocolate and a piece of cake as a reward for re-building one of the dens in Cuckoo Pen.

Although there are leaves on the ground, there is a lot of green in the background.  

This outing occurred a month ago

 

LICHEN AND MOSS

In the centre of the picture below is a bright green clump of moss.  Mosses - and there are over 600 species in Britain - are primitive plants with no vessels to carry water and spores instead of seeds.  They like damp places and are often the first to colonise rocks and even concrete.  Here the moss - probably Fork Moss (Dicranum scoparium) - is growing on a dead ash branch.  

  

The grey-green growths are lichens (pronounced 'liken' rather than 'litchen').  I find mosses difficult to identify but there are over 1800 lichen species in Britain, so no chance.  They are a good indicator of air quality. As a general rule the more complex the formation the cleaner the air.  Crusty ones grow anywhere, leaf lichens need slightly cleaner air and the very whiskery ones require very unpolluted air.

In the picture below you can see fruiting bodies developing.

Lichens are mini-ecosystems that combine two or more organisms: a fungus species combined with either algae or cyanobacteria.  The fungus provides the structure and the other organisms, usually green, provide a food factory via photosynthesis.  The fungus is the benign jailor of the algae or bacteria.

Get yourself a 10x hand lens to discover the beauty of these tiny life forms.

 

DASHING ORANGE SARGENT

Again this is not in Filnore Woods though not far away.  

Standing on the green in front of Thornbury Tesco is this oriental Rowan in full autumn plumage.  It could be Japanese Rowan (Sorbus commixta) or one of its varieties like 'Embley' but I think with its big leaves and startling colour it is a Sargent's Rowan (Sorbus sargentiana) from China.  

If you miss seeing it like this have a look later at the winter buds which are sticky like Horse Chestnut sticky buds but bright red.

As you can see from the little plaque in front of the tree, it was planted by Thornbury Lions to commemorate the Twin Towers massacre.

 

NATURE IN TOWN

Not in Filnore Woods but nature is not confined to nature reserves - nor should it be.

I hadn't noticed this nest all year in the Amelanchier tree outside what used to be Wildings shop in Thornburry High Street.

But as the veil of leaves is discarded, the tree reveals where somebody - probably a pair of wood pigeons - has been looking after their nestlings.  

 

ROSEBAY SKELETONS

Our rosebay willowherb colony's beautiful pink flowers have shed their seeds.

They now stand defiantly against the coming winter with a different kind of beauty.

 

COPPICING HAZEL

Volunteers are coppicing hazel in Cuckoo Pen at Filnore.  This will let more light in to promote ground flora . . . . .

. . . . and as a by-product create poles to be used on site for steps, path edging, etc

The thin twigs are trimmed off with billhooks showing the nascent catkins that grow on the upper branches where the light reaches them.  They would have matured in February but have now been sacrificed on the altar of coppice management.

This less usable brash material is made into a dead hedge surrounding the cut area (coupe).  This is (a) to clear the woodland floor for plants to grow, (b) to create a hedgy habitat for small creatures and (c) to show us in a year's time, where we coppiced.  It is not designed to keep people out.

Stakes are sharpened and inserted into the ground in two parallel rows

Then the brash is laid between the stakes and tidied off with loppers.

  

BRISTLY OXTONGUE

 It's usually quite difficult to separate all the different, yellow, dandelion type flowers but this one is easy if you look at the leaves.  

The answer is in the name, Bristly Oxtongue: the leaves are covered in bristles sprouting out of whitish pimples.  

The flowers are fairly bright yellow and quite robust.  

A cheery sight in autumn, and flowering quite late this year.

      

 

AUTUMN JOYS FOR OUT OF WORK WORKER WASPS

Last chance saloon for worker wasps.  Nectaring on ivy flowers

Photo: Marianne Mogendorff 

And chomping on fallen apples.

Scissoring off fragments to guzzle.

Then joined by a sister.

Obviously on good terms with each other and I think you can see them interacting and communicating through their antennae.

And why were all these wasps crawling about beneath this willow.

Then I noticed black colonies of aphids on the willow shoots.   So the wasps were presumably enjoying the honeydew that the aphids produce, although they didn't seem to be milking the aphids like ants do.   They were just fossicking around trying to find any honeydew residues.

I searched the internet and discovered that these are Large Willow Bark Aphids (Tuberolachnus salignus) and regular visitors to willows.  Autumn is their peak season and they survive through the winter.  Mysteriously they all disappear -  usually in February.  Nobody knows where they go but they reappear in late spring.  

Apparently they do no harm to the willows and provide a food source for numerous other insects and small birds - not to mention wasps.

RHS page link

MEADOWS ARE STILL SWEET

Walking near the sailing club at Oldbury-on-Severn we saw Meadowsweet in flower.

Usually at this time of year you would only expect to see the leaves 

but here were several plants merrily in flower.  

The foamy spray of flowers has a heady, sweet fragrance. 

The leaves however have a medical smell, like germolene.  Apparently the plant used to be known in Yorkshire as 'courtship and matrimony':  the sweet perfume of the flowers for courtship and the more astringent smell of the leaves for the reality of marriage. 

As well as the smell you can identify the leaves which have up to nine leaflets on each stalk with tiny leaflets interspersed between the larger ones.

 

SYCAMORE TAR SPOT

At this time of year many of the sycamores get these black spots on their leaves.

This is a fungus called Rhytisma acerinum or Tar Spot of Sycamore

Now you could say, "Oh dear this tree is infected!" or alternatively, "What a decorative finish to the sycamore year."

It has a negligible impact on the foliage's capacity to photosynthesise, does the tree no harm, so why not enjoy it?

 

SILVER LEAF

This is the reason you don't prune plum trees and cherries at this time of year.  It is the fruiting body of the fungus that causes silver leaf disease, Chondrostereum purpureum.  Here it is growing on the stump of a damson tree that was felled three years ago in our garden.  

In summer plum and cherry trees produce a resin, which can seal small wounds to prevent fungal spores from entering.  That's the time to prune them - if you have to.

A few days later some toadstools appeared, feeding on the dead roots of the damson tree.

2 days later.

And another 10 days later.

These are the fruiting bodies of honey fungus and will soon turn black and slimy when frost happens.  Meanwhile the fungus will be sending out underground runners called rhizomorphs in search of other susceptible plants to attack.  

I should probably grub this stump out to remove the food source for this fungus.

 

LONG LEGS FOR SAFETY

The cobweb spider isn't keen on cold weather, so it frequents the roofs of caves and the ceilings of cellars, garages and rooms in your house.  Well maybe not in your house but certainly in mine.  

They weave a muddly web often in the top corner of a room and wait.  Sometimes they get fed up and descend to the floor in search of something tasty.  But it's dangerous.  This one on my kitchen floor has only six legs instead of the usual eight.  Clearly some rough encounters have occurred.

They will eat any insects or other arthropods including other spiders.  They get up high on their long legs to avoid getting bitten until the prey is safely trussed up in silk.   Then they can insert their fangs and suck the victim dry.  😮😮 

I was surprised to learn that they even catch, kill and eat the rather more robust looking house spiders (Tegenaria) that run across winter carpets.