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…
Pamela Peacock spotted this colourful knot grass caterpillar recently. It was identified by ‘Butterfly Conservation’. It is called the knot grass caterpillar, but feeds on a wide variety of herbaceous plants.
The picture shows a good flush of cyclamens in Frogmore Lane. These are probably escapees from somebodies garden. They were a woodland plant in the UK once, but they are now very rare and maybe only found in Kentish woodlands.
This large elephant hawk moth caterpillar was spotted two weeks ago eating a rosebay willow herb plant on the bank of the river channel beside The Cross. They also eat fuchsia and bedstraw plants
A common lizard (lacerta vivipara) crossed my path very quickly when I was walking on the South Downs Way next to the Sustainability Centre. It is possibly living in the scrub area that was part of HMS Mercury.
There is a good crop of sloes this year, but you will probably have to move fast as the birds will be picking the crop as well. Sloe gin makers like to see a frost on the fruit before they pick them, but you can cheat by putting them in the freezer for a while.