Late flowers

This Dogwood bush has coloured purple for autumn but the warm October weather has convinced it to flower again, which it usually does in May.

And skulking in the undergrowth I found this Rosebay Willowherb, a July flower normally.

Last nectar of summer

Ivy flowers provide a last autumn feast for bees, wasps, hoverflies and other six-leggedy folks, before Jack Frost comes with his fingers of icy death. 

If you pass by an ivy-clad tree or wall at this season on a sunny day 

you may hear the whole thing humming.

The flowers will be followed by small black berries, not for humans, but for birds 

and small rodents when other food is running low in late winter and early spring.

Horny Woods?

I would like to dispel the myth that Filnore Woods is a 'horny community woodland'.  The notice has been carefully defaced.

We shall endeavout to re-instate it as 'Thornbury Community Woodland'

Ash die-back

Sorry to report that we may have 
the ash die-back disease at Filnore Woods. 

The diamond-shaped lesion on the bark of this young and leafless ash sapling 
is a typical symptom.

If so there is little we can do to stop it spreading through the site.  

And wherever it came from, - probably nearby, - this fungal disease 
is likely to have taken hold already.  

Prepare to see the death of a lot of ash trees at Filnore and in the surrounding countryside, which will have a massive impact on the local landscape.

Try to avoid exporting any dead leaves on your shoes, to slow down the spread.  
The disease resides in the leaf stalks.

Some ash trees may turn out to be resistant so there is hope for the future.

Traveller's Joy

The flowers of this Wild Clematis, also known as Traveller's Joy  .  .  .  .

 .  .  .  .  develop into these spidery structures, 

which pop open to produce the fluffy seed heads 

of Old Man's Beard, -  another name for the plant.

Agrimony

Not so many flowers to be found at Filnore Woods at the moment but we still have some yellow spikes of Agrimony.

I got some of the flowers more or less in focus but not the spike of fruits which are like litlle burrs waiting to stick on to your socks and shoe laces - not a bad way for the plant to spread its seeds. 

I'm never quite sure how to pronounce it.  Do you stress the GRIM or the AGG ?  you can avoid the problem by using the alternative name of Aaron's Rod.

Is it a little policeman?

Photo by Alan Watts

Still on the wing now in Filnore Woods is the Small Copper butterfly.  This species enjoys warm dry conditions so there have been quite a lot about this year.

They are fidgety little creatures and the males are very territorial, attacking any other insects that come near.

The caterpillars feed on sorrel and dock.