21 Tuesday Jan 2020
On yet another very frosty morning, I met a friend to explore a woodland near Caerphilly called Coed y Werin, which I hadn’t been to before. And it was a delightful place, full of grand old trees, small streams and an iced-over pond.
And we saw Siskin, birds that seldom venture into my coastal patch, though these were very high up, nibbling at the cones in the tall larch trees, so my photos are heavily cropped. But hopefully you can see the birds today – not like yesterday’s Snipe challenge.
30 Monday Dec 2019
Tags
The fog was so thick this morning that I could hear the fog horns blasting out their warnings to shipping using the Bristol Channel. So, I figured I’d go for a local wander and see what photos opportunities I could find. Trees in fog it was.
13 Friday Dec 2019
As I always do when I need to be ‘soothed and healed’, I went for a long walk with Nature as soon as I could get away today. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing but I was well wrapped up and, to my delight, I found a few wildflowers still in bloom, fed sunflower hearts to the hungry small birds, and then, much to my surprise, found some Hazel catkins out already – and not just the male catkins, but several of the tiny pink female flowers, which seems quite early.
11 Wednesday Dec 2019
Tags
berries for winter thrushes, winter berries, Yew, Yew arils, Yew berries, Yew fruit, Yew taxanes, yew tree
If the two large Yew trees I passed on my way to the library this morning were not growing on a main road, I’m sure their copious quantities of red berries would all have been scoffed by now by hungry winter thrushes.
And if the berries last a while longer and the weather gets colder, they still might be, the birds forced to brave the passing traffic and pedestrians in search of nourishing food.
The stones inside those juicy red berries (which are more correctly named arils) are poisonous to most creatures but they pass right through a bird’s digestive system so the bird remains unharmed.
In fact, birds are essential to the growth and spread of Yew trees – their digestive system helps to weaken the seed’s tough coating, which enables it to sprout, and birds are the main dispersal agents for Yew seeds.
We humans should never eat the seeds, however, as our stomach acids are strong enough to break down the seed coating, thereby releasing the taxanes (the poisonous alkaloids) into our bodies.
06 Friday Dec 2019
In this case, Plums and custard does not refer to a tasty Friday night dessert, sadly, but rather to a deliciously named fungus with the scientific name Tricholomopsis rutilans, which certainly does not roll off the tongue.
The Plums and custard name (and the alternate, Strawberry fungus) don’t refer to taste or edibility, however – at its most vibrant, this fungus displays rich shades of a plum-like colour on its cap and its gills are a lovely custard yellow.
These wood-rotting fungi are usually found growing on decaying conifers, and you can read more about them, their habitats, and their identification features on the First Nature website.
05 Thursday Dec 2019
It’s not just the birds that are consuming winter berries at the moment.
When I’m out walking, I often hear scurrying noises in the tree branches above my head and look up to see Grey squirrels, their cheeks stuffed with berries, their paws reaching out for the next delicious morsels.
And it’s not just a berry dessert they crave, of course, as they’re also well known for their liking for nuts. In the photo, right, the squirrel is holding Alder cones, which it has just been munching on.
26 Tuesday Nov 2019
‘There is a low mist in the woods—It is a good day to study lichens. The view so confined—it compels your attention to near objects—& the white background reveals the disks of the lichens distinctly—They appear more loose-flowing—expanded—flattened out—the colors brighter—for the damp—The round yellowish green lichens on the white pines loom through the mist (or are seen dimly) like shields—whose devices you would fain read.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau, A Year in Thoreau’s Journal 1851, Penguin, New York, 1993
20 Wednesday Nov 2019
I don’t know which species of insect created these tracks under the bark on a fallen tree but I imagine it was some kind of beetle. I also don’t know if this damage caused the tree to fall, though it seems unlikely as this was quite superficial. Whatever the circumstances, the marks were lovely to behold.
18 Monday Nov 2019
I’m sure you’ll be relieved to read that, despite its title, this blog has nothing to do with cow intestines. Rather, this is about a fungus, Tripe fungus (Auricularia mesenterica), not the loveliest of fungi but still an interesting find as it’s usually found growing on Elm trees. And Elms are few and far between following their devastation by Dutch Elm disease.
I found these Tripe on a dead tree in Cogan Wood at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park this morning, in an area where I’ve previously found other fungi specific to Elm trees, so there were obviously several growing there in past days.
09 Saturday Nov 2019
Tags
autumn, autumn at Forest Farm, autumn colour, autumn leaves, autumn trees, Forest Farm Nature Reserve
Here are some of the colours of autumn from my walk around Forest Farm Nature Reserve yesterday. It was magical!
earthstar 
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