POST 2

We have a self-guided trail round Filnore Woods based on 20 numbered posts.  Post 1 is just inside the entrance.  You turn right, passing the path up to the pylon and in the far corner you come to post 2.  It is actually painted on a cherry tree, which makes it a little more vandal-proof.  Can you see the number, just above the ivy?  

The arrow shows you which way to go for post 3.  The brown sticky stuff trickling over the painted number is resin.  Cherries, plums and other prunuses produce resin to protect themselves from infection when they are wounded.  This may be a response to the stripping off of some bark, or whatever caused the depressed bark above the resin discharge.

 

THE MARMALADE HOVERFLY

The Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) is one of our commonest hoverflies and very distinctively marked.  This one unfortunately died in our kitchen.  It's only about 12cm long.

They are on the wing all year and are sometimes joined by swarms from Europe.  The adults feed on nectar and can often be seen resting on flat-topped flowers.  The larvae feed on aphids and are therefore very welcome in my garden.  One larva can consume up to 400 aphids before it pupates.

Here are images of a larva and a pupa from wikipedia.  Be careful not to destroy them.

  

 

FRUIT TREES

 

    We shouldn't really call these things tree seeds.  

They contain the seeds but are more properly known as fruits with the smaller seeds inside.

We think of autumn as the time for mellow fruitfulness 

but although not ripe, the fruits are already forming.

Sycamore helicopters

 

Ash keys 

Beech mast

  

Hornbeam catkins

  

And spectacular lime tree flowers beloved of bees . . . 

. . . with the pea-sized fruits forming behind.

OEDEMERA NOBILIS WITH A GREEN SHEEN

 

Rescued what looked like a struggling black beetle from a bucket of water.  On a closer look it turned out to be iridescent green not black.  The hind legs had very 'swollen thighs', which identified it as a male Oedemera nobilis - the thick-legged flower beetle.  The female has more ordinary slender legs.  I think the English name is rather clumsy so I prefer the scientific name. It is at least 'nobilis' or noble, which suits its splendid green sheen.

They feed on pollen and a bit of nectar so you often find them sitting on flat-topped flower heads.  A favourite is the ox-eye or moon daisy.  They are therefore useful pollinators.   It's not just bees, you know. 

Anyway although he seemed reluctant to leave my finger I persuaded him on to a flower and he seemed to be happily tucking in to some pollen.

PRIVET REASONS

I had no idea that privet was a plant native to Britain until we came to selecting shrubs for the original planting of Filnore Woods in 1998.  This is the common privet, not the Japanese privet with more rounded leaves, often used for small hedges.

It is in bloom now.  The flowers have a heady fragrance, which I like, but which some people find a bit overpowering.

There's some just below post 3.

 

WILD FLOWERS IN TOP MEADOW

Wild flowers in our top meadow at Filnore Woods are on the increase.  Not only yellow rattle but also rabbits are keeping the vigorous grasses in check.

Near post 5 there is a group of Goatsbeards.  The seedheads are what stand out, like extra large dandelion clocks.  The flowers only appear in the morning, which gives the plant its other name of Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon.  Then they close up into a pointed sort of bud (you can see a few in the picture on the left below), which opens up the following day into the giant clock.

  

Here below is the Goatsbeard flower 

and another yellow one already established at Filnore - Agrimony, also known as Aaron's Rod.

  

  

For the first year we have a small clump of Birdsfoot Trefoil.  

This plant can expand into quite large patches.  

  

  

Sometimes the flowers are tinted red which gives it the name of Eggs and Bacon.  

It is also known as Tom Thumb.

Moon Daisies are spreading . . .  

. . . and among them is a group of Teasels

  

Sorrel is like a pink dock.  

  

Some are very pink.

You can check it is a sorrel and not a dock if the base of the leaf forms two horns curling round the stem.

 

   

Dock leaves do not curl round the stem.

  

 

YELLOW RATTLE

 

Despite all his efforts at sowing yellow rattle seeds in the top meadow at Filnore, wild flower enthusiast Peter Blenkiron only managed to find four plants up there and this is one of them, captured on camera by Alan Watts.  The leaves are strongly serrated in opposite pairs up the black-spotted stem.

It's an annual and the seed soon becomes unviable so should be sown fresh.  Hopefully our pioneer plants will produce loads of seeds and seedlings.

Yellow rattle is semi-parasitic on the roots of grasses and was once regarded as a pest as it reduced the hay crop.  Nowadays it is often sown to reduce the vigour of so-called improved grassland and thus provide a kinder environment for less vigorous wild flowers.

The name comes from the seeds rattling in the seed pods when they are ripe.  

STAGS IN THE GARDEN

Caught this beetle under my insect trapping glass as it wandered round the patio.  When interfered with it drew in its legs and froze.  This is a typical reaction of  the Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus).

It is quite common in woods and gardens.  The larvae grow inside rotting tree stumps, especially ash, beech and apple, while the adults feed on tree sap.  

With its small 'antlers' - really jaws - it resembles the female of its cousin the larger Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), but this species is all black whereas the female Stag Beetle has brown wing cases and is much larger.

There is a fascinating bugblog by Africa Gomez for those of you who want further info on lesser stag beetles and all sorts of UK bugs.  Though I realise  bluebells and children get more likes than invertebrates.

Female stag left and lesser stag right from Maria Fremlin's fantastic website

And here are a male and female Lucanus Stag Beetle also on Maria Fremlin's  website

Unfortunately the larger Lucanus stag beetles are in decline because there is not enough dead wood left by over-tidy people.  They are more or less restricted to south-east England.  The beetles, I mean, not the people.

 

ORCHIDS

 Alan Watts out with his camera again managed to catch this Bee Orchid on a grass verge a few metres from his house in Hopkins Close.

Meanwhile I managed to find this product of No-Mow May on the verge outside Happy Days Nursery and Playschool.

  

They are two of our most common orchids but it is always great to see them (a) because they are so beautiful and (b) because it is so hard to get them to grow where you want them to.

CENTIPEDEs

Lithobius forficatus - brown and fast

There are 57 species of centipedes in Britain but I tend to to think of them just as the brown fast ones like Lithobius forficatus,  and the busy, long, yellow ones, like Geophilus flavus that move away much more slowly.  The centipede below is one of the yellows.  You can see that although it has legs it pulls itself through the earth in the same way that an earthworm does, expanding forwards and then contracting to bring the rear part along.  

They prefer damp conditions and, although blind, they avoid light, burrowing like a living thread through the gaps in the soil.  It's a bit puzzling to work out which is the front and which is the back because they have antennae at both ends.

They feed on young earthworms, mites and insect larvae.

After mating the female lays about 50 eggs and guards them, not only till they hatch, but until they can feed and fend for themselves.  What good mothers they are! 

 

DOG ROSE

Climbing up a tree along the railway path near Midland Way is this dog rose (Rosa canina).

  

 

SPINDLE ERMINE MOTH CATERPILLARS

Alan Watts  drew my attention to an unusual phenomenon.

This Spindle Tree on the railway path had been completely defoliated by caterpillars living in silky webs.  Since the leaves are gone so are the caterpillars but I was pretty sure they were the larvae of the Spindle Ermine Moth - after all they were devastating a spindle tree.

Further along the path, opposite the industrial estate, another Spindle had been more recently plundered and the webby nests were still in good condition,  with a few culprits inside.

Interestingly several of the nests had a tight silken thread reaching right down to the ground

They're a bit hard to see in the photos but there were a lot and some were over 2 metres high.

 

I had never seen or heard  of this before 

and have not found anything explaining these vertical guy ropes.

Then I noticed two spotted caterpillars, clearly ermines, climbing up the thread.

sometimes they seemed to be racing each other

  

But sometimes the one in front would turn round and seem to urge the other to keep up.

  

Then occasionally the lower one would attempt to overtake the upper one.

When they got to the leaf  at the top they didn't seem to know what to do - just wiggled about apparently aimlessly.

  

After ten minutes of watching them and looking suspicious to passers-by, I gave up but I've put several pictures up in case anyone has an idea.

There are several ermine moths all looking very similar, and most easily identified by the plant the caterpillars are nesting on:  the orchard ermine feeds on blackthorn and hawthorn, the bird cherry ermine on bird cherry and the spindle ermine on spindle.  The trees recover quite rapidly.

Photo of moth from Butterfly Conservation

As you can see the moths are white with black spots like the fur of the ermine or stoat in winter, and the caterpillars are not so white but they too are black-spotted.