RAKING UP

The grass, including a lot of wildflower stems was cut by our friends from the South Glos council workforce.  Now the Friends of filnore Woods volunteers have to rake it off to stop it fertilising the ground and encouraging the coarser more dominant plants to overwhelm the hayfield flowers we want to encourage.

It is raked into windrows to make it easier to locate and pick up with pitchforks.

So not so many thistles, nettles, brambles, greater willowherb and hogweed.

Hopefully more cowslips, coltsfoot, lady's smock, red campion, hop trefoil, hedge woundwort, yellow vetchling, tufted vetch, goatsbeard, centaury, yellow wort, birdsfoot trefoil, lady's bedstraw, knapweed, scabious, meadowsweet, perforate st johns wort, betony, self heal and the rest. 

 

HAWK KEEPING AN EYE ON THINGS

This splendid caterpillar was photographed by Alan Watts on the path alongside Thornbury Farm Wood near Tesco.  Alan said he thought it had finished shopping as it was heading away from Tesco.

It's the larva of an Eyed Hawkmoth which had probably been feeding on the leaves of willow or crab apple and was crawling off to pupate underground for the winter, and turn into one of these (below) next summer.  The spike on the end of the caterpillar is not a sting, and its blue colour helps distinguish it from the very similar caterpillar of the poplar hawkmoth.

Photo: The Guardian

This moth only displays these eye marks if disturbed.  It also rocks to and fro to scare off birds which might attack it.

The caterpillars have another way of avoiding predation: they hang upside down from twigs, pretending to be leaves, as you can see from this photo from the UK Moths website.

Photo: Nick Greatorix-Davies, UK Moths

 

VERVAIN

The long spikes of Vervain (Verbena officinalis) are easily overlooked because the flowers are so small.  The plant is happy in alkaline conditions such as chalky soil or old mortar.  It has long been used for medical and mystical purposes and was once thought to ward off headaches, poisonous bites and the plague.  

Although the flowers have a pink tinge, to me they sometimes look bluish.  How does that happen?

The leaves divide in a way that is called pinnatifid in botanical circles and the branches also divide.

Small but beautifully formed.

       

 

WASPS AND APPLES

Once fallen apples have a hole pecked in them by a bird, the slugs and wasps can get to work.

At this time of year worker wasps have stopped feeding the grubs in their colony on caterpillars and other meat.   The queen has stopped laying eggs.  Now they can please themselves by searching out sugary stuff.  It can be nectar or jam or beer or cream teas or fallen fruit.

It's a jolly festival time for them.  They won't trouble you unless you accidentally squash them. 

 

WOOD MOUSE

A Wood Mouse on the patio that had been given a sleeping draft by my cat.  

You can tell it's a mouse by the long scaly tail and the big ears.  A vole has a shorter, furry tail and very small ears.

I put him on the garden wall and he seemed to perk up.

In the German town of Walldorf there is now to be an annual ban from May till August on cats leaving the house at all, in order to protect the rare crested lark in the area.

Cats in this country kill a lot of mice and voles as well as birds.

The RSPB have created a well-balanced web page on this controversial subject. Here  is a link.

FOX WORK

Spotting mammals is difficult because they are usually secretive and often nocturnal.  You have to look for footprints, fur, faeces and signs of activity.  

This photo shows that somebody has killed a pigeon - probably a fox.  

 

KNAPWEED

Another late summer nectar source, greater knapweed grows in groups in the cowshed field, often neighbouring scabious. 

In the early stages the centre of the flower is a bright reddish purple. . . . . .

. . . . . . but as it matures the flower becomes a more uniform colour.