What I do on Mondays!

Latest Articles

What I do on Mondays!
Page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 53, 54, 55 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Conservation and Environment

Author

Message

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 14 10:51 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Doesn't it also mean to walk unsteadily? That would fit better as it meanders over the grass.

That makes a great deal of sense. Also possibly the effect of the parasitism on the host plant makes it weak and feeble and 'doddery'.

But my dictionary doesn't seem to think there is a link.

Henry

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Mon Aug 11, 14 11:43 pm Post subject:

Last week I stayed at home (for a variety of reasons).

This week we went out in the afternoon, and managed to avoid all the rain showers.

There were lots and lots of these about:

The Common Earthball - related to puffballs. (This one is apparently also called, by some, the Pigskin Poison Puffball (it says so on the internet, so it must be true)). It isn't a puffball i.e. it doesn't turn yellow and spongy inside and puff out spores through a pore on the top.

There were, as I say, lots of them. In some places they looked remarkably like piles of droppings from some herbivore!

We also found a swarm of solitary bees, yet to be identified. Watch this space.

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 14 7:48 am Post subject:
Again, I don't think I have seen those. You do find some interesting things.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2507
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Tue Aug 12, 14 9:16 pm Post subject:
Dodder I've seen here in New Jersey and previously in Connecticut is a striking orange color. Very difficult to eradicate, even though seedlings must attach to a host plant within just a few days of germination and before the roots wither away.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 14 11:31 pm Post subject:

This week we visited a friend's garden. He just happens to own a flooded gravel pit that he has planted with dozens (possibly hundreds) of aquatic (and other) plants.

This is nice:

Fringed Water Lily - rare plant as a native, but quite commonly found planted or escaped in the wild.

I love this one:

Flowering Rush. I'm not sure if my friend planted this or not. It's certainly well within the native range here.

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 14 6:18 am Post subject:
The flowering rush is lovely. We planted some in our pond but they died out as it probably wasn't suitable for them. The fringed waterlilly is interesting too. I don't think I have seen one of them before.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 14 12:19 am Post subject:
We deliberately chose not to go on a walk on Bank Holiday Monday, assuming (correctly, as it turned out) that the weather would be inimical to pleasant walking. Last Monday was much better. We had a very enjoyable walk, saw several Red Kites, Buzzards and a couple of Kestrels. I didn't get any wildlife pictures, so here is a part of a ruined building against the western evening sky. Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 14 8:31 am Post subject:
Lovely picture. Thank you. So it was mainly a bird day rather than a plant day then?

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 14 5:06 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

Lovely picture. Thank you. So it was mainly a bird day rather than a plant day then?

Well, it seemed to turn out that way, though in fact most of the birding was done as we were sitting in the car waiting for others to arrive!

I think it was supposed to be a fungus day, but the undergrowth had turned into overgrowth since our last visit, and there were not many fungi visible.

Henry

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 14 11:12 pm Post subject:

Today was the second of our 'winter daytime' walks. At this time of year it gets dark too early to make evening walks worthwhile. Went to a woodland, which was notable for the extraordinary number of snails that were climbing/had climbed the trees. Mostly around the one to five feet level, but there were some as high as thirty feet, possibly some were higher, but my neck refused to let me gaze longer at greater heights.

These were on a broken off sapling, but most of the tree had their collection. There must have been thousands all told.

Most were Cepaea nemoralis as in this picture with a few Helix aspersa amongst them.

We also had splendid views of a Sparrowhawk, and I found a nice male Roesel's Bush Cricket.

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 14 7:27 am Post subject:
I have found some snails in odd places too. We sometimes have them on our window, which is on the first floor. We do have a lot of greenery outside to be fair, but it is a bit odd to see them there. We get those snails sometimes, but I am afraid I haven't usually bothered looking them up. Nice range of colours there. Hope the high snails don't mean more rain this winter.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 14 9:00 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

I have found some snails in odd places too. We sometimes have them on our window, which is on the first floor. We do have a lot of greenery outside to be fair, but it is a bit odd to see them there.

We get those snails sometimes, but I am afraid I haven't usually bothered looking them up. Nice range of colours there. Hope the high snails don't mean more rain this winter.

Well, the site does flood occasionally, and there were quite a lot of dead snails on the ground. But going thirty feet up a tree to avoid floods?

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 14 8:03 am Post subject:
Let's hope they don't know something we don't.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 14 11:24 pm Post subject:

This Monday we visited a nice piece of FC woodland. Quite a few birds - I saw a small bird zip through the trees just after somebofy said "Look, a Goldcrest". Two of us heard a Raven. There were still some flowers including Marjoram, and a beautiful Red Maple. The fungus enthusiasts went "oooh" and aaahhhh" at several unassuming brown squidgy things, so they were happy, but I found this:

which is Ergot, the fungal disease of various grasses (including crops such as wheat and rye) which causes all sorts of nasty symptoms and is also said to be hallucinogenic. (Don't try eating it, please).

This specimen is actually one I found a few years ago, and is quite a large one. The squares are 5 mm, I think.

We also found several small frogs, happily hopping about in Beech litter.

Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15605

Posted: Tue Sep 30, 14 9:09 am Post subject:

We have quite a lot of fungi at the moment, and I haven't got the faintest idea what most of them are in spite of careful perusal of Rogers. I have seen ergot on ancient varieties of wheat, but that is a very big one Buzzy.
We have ravens in the wood near us. I think they are becoming more common. I saw a goldcrest once, but don't think we generally have them.

There are still a few flowers out, but we are mainly into fruit and nuts now. The beech nuts are falling all over the place, and one I opened had a viable nut in it. We only have field maple which goes bright yellow, occasionally with a hint of red, but some of them do turn lovely colours.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Conservation and Environment	All times are GMT Page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 53, 54, 55 Next
Page 4 of 55

View Latest Posts