The very colourful spindle tree fruit are showing very well as the leaves have gone from the trees. The spindle tree (euonymus europeans) has very hard wood and can be cut to a sharp point. It was used for making spindles for wool spinning and for butchers’ skewers. Charcoal produced from this plant is seen as superior among artists due to its strength and density. However the attractive fruit are poisonous, so beware.
Pamala Peacock of ‘The Green’ spotted this very discerning wood mouse feasting on a quince! The wood mouse is one of the most widespread and abundant British mammals. It is also known as the ‘long-tailed’ mouse. It has a short life-span of around 2 years.
Along with the exceptional numbers of acorns, beech nuts, apples etc., there has been a really good crop of holly berries this year. However if you think you might get out and cut some well berried holly leaves in mid-December for your Christmas decorations you may be disappointed as the birds are eating them all the time now. Large flocks of fieldfares have arrived and are having a feast.
There have been an unusual number of ravens on Park Hill and Mascoombe Bottom recently. I have seen a number of crows trying to ‘mob’ them, the crows look quite small beside the ravens. The ravens appear to be feeding on the corn cobs from the maize plants that are at the top of Park Hill and Mascoombe Bottom, there are eaten cobs and leaves all over the top of the hill. I met a Read more…
With the mild and wet autumn proceeding there are a lot of fly agaric mushrooms around. These are the iconic ones that have fairies and elves sitting on them, particularly in Victorian illustrations. They are mildly poisonous and contain some psychoactive substances, so beware!
I found these oak apples, or galls, on an oak sapling recently. Oak apples are caused by a gall wasp laying a single egg in a developing leaf bud on an oak tree. The wasp larvae feed on the gall tissue resulting from their secretions, which modify the oak bud into the gall, a structure that protects the developing larvae until they undergo metamorphosis into adults. Apparently this process seems to do little to damage the oak. Oak Read more…
A ‘mast’ year is when there is a super abundance of nuts and fruits such acorns, beech nuts, hazelnuts, horse chestnuts, sweet chestnuts, apples etc. Click on this link for the definition: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2017/10/autumn-is-back/ My experience walking around this year in late summer and early autumn is that this is definitely a ‘mast’ year. It has been difficult to walk down some steep footpaths in the woods due to the amount of nuts on the ground.
With the recent rains and the mild weather mushrooms and other fungi are becoming abundant. I found a nice picking of field mushrooms today! Please do not pick any fungi to eat unless you are sure of what you are picking.
With the recent heavy rains toads have been making their way to areas close to their breeding pond (near Coombe Road and north of Duncombe Wood) before they hibernate for the winter. Unfortunately a number of them have been squashed by passing vehicles as they cross Coombe Road. There is a much more significant problem in the late winter/early spring when literally hundreds of toads migrate to the pond. We are setting up Toad Patrols Read more…
The Bourne that flows out of the spring fed pond to the north of Duncombe Wood, and then flows north to the corner of Coombe Road near the village, has run started to run again. It stopped on 16/06/20 as the very dry summer set in. The dates of stopping and starting vary every year, depending on rainfall. In the wet summer of 2014 it did not stop at all. (A bourne is an intermittent stream , flowing Read more…