December in pictures

Ferntastic

Broadwater Warren

Fly Agaric

Turner's Field - volunteering til sundown!

Attack of the blackthorn

Norfolk Estate, Arundel

Archeological Tree Hugging

Sadly not iron slag, boo

Saw mill remnants

My future home, she wishes

Old school shepherding and the greater spotted jack russell

Earthworks

Frankly more fungi

It does seem my intermittent blog has taken a slight fascination with fungi but I spend of lot of time at the moment in woodlands and well, there is a lot of it about!  Here are some more little beauties that I recently found...

Shaggy Parasol Macrolepiota rhacodes

Jew's Ear Auricularia auricula-judae

Jew's ear is also known sometimes as Jelly ear.  It is so called apparently because Judas hanged himself from an Elder tree (which is where this fungus is most commonly found).

Candle Snuff Fungus Xylaria hypoxylon

Other odd ones growing on branches...

On a non fungal related matter, the urban greenspace that is our communal garden grows ever more fascinating.  One of my first blogs was about the interesting flora species found on the grassy area.  I believe we have a Pin Oak tree which is quite random.  It is native of North America and more of an ornamental here.  We have had the pleasure of seeing a bullfinch twice in the last couple of days, feeding on the birch.  The birch has also been very popular with goldcrest, chaffinches, greenfinches, coal tits, and blue tits.

Away with the fairies

Now's a great time to go foraging for fairies' bonnets, jelly babies, pig's ears, yellow fingers, witch's butter and slippery jack.  Yes these are all types of fungus.  I don't know who was in charge of naming the different species but I think they probably had a go at tasting or licking them first, oh there goes a fairy wearing a bonnet! I snapped a few fungalicious shots whilst out in Saddlescombe Farm and Broadwater Warren...

Egg Yoke Fungus

Velvet Shank

Brown roll-rim (?)

Brown roll-rim (?)

possible bell cap?

Fly Agaric

Bolete sp

I am not 100% on the ID and some I havent figured out but I'll keep foraging with the fairies!

Rainham Marshes

We visited RSPB's Rainham Marshes on Sunday for the first time.  These marshes just next to the Thames and London are apparently medieval.  It is a great site for waders, wildfowl and birds of prey.  It also has quite an interesting history.  It was closed for 100yrs and used as a military firing range.  There are remnants of this around the site such as this target wall (spot the kestrel on no 6):

There was also this remnant piece of tree which supposedly dates back to neolithic times (approx 6000 years ago).  It was preserved in the silt at the bottom of a ditch, preventing any oxygen access and thus decay, until now!

Wonder what species of tree it was and what sort of people used to sit under its canopy.

Birds spotted included lapwing, snipe, golden plover, teal, wigeon, shoveler, grey heron, little egret, kestrel, stonechat, little grebe, and black-tailed godwit.  Good site but prefer Dungeness or Rye.

My post obviously wouldn't be complete without a picture of some creepy looking monster - so here you go:

Araneus diadematus Garden Spider (female)

Aspen, a popular trembler

I just wanted to share with you this beautiful tree as it is a wondrous sight to behold in its autumn splendour.  Aspen is a native tree to Britain and is part of the Poplar family.  The latin name is Populus tremula, so called as the leaves appear to tremble in a breeze (and they make a rustling sound).  In autumn, the leaves turn golden yellow as you can see in the below pictures from a visit yesterday to Kiln Wood:

The leaves have a fairly distinctive shape:

(image from trees for life)

Personally I dont think we have enough of these trees.  But hey ho what do I know.

Shhh, we're waiting for a Kingfisher

So I should really be doing some studying but it's been far too long since I wrote my blog!  So here's a little catch up on the past couple of weeks.  We had a trip to the Kent Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Sevenoaks on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  It is a fantastic reserve full of lakes, reedbeds and woodland.  It's great for birds and has some well placed hides.  We sat in Willow Hide for a while hoping to catch a glimpse of a kingfisher but unfortunately the closest we came was a possible fly-by which we were fairly sure was one.  Our chances might have been greater if the hide hadn't been so busy and the elderly couple, who following wishing us good luck on spotting, hadnt slammed the hide door on the way out...twice.  Honestly, an airplane crashing into the pond would have caused less disturbance.  However, we were fortunate to watch a Grey Heron hanging out and catching fish:

There seems to be a little brown jobby flying across the first picture, not sure what that was.  It is amazing how still the heron stands whilst watching for prey and for ages.  If anyone saw the crazy bobbing Jack Snipe on Autunmwatch, quite the opposite!

I also got quite a nice picture of some Devil's-bit Scabious whilst wandering around:

There are plenty of willowherb species around the reserve and though no longer in flower I got these pictures at an earlier visit to the site.  This is Large-flowered Evening-primrose:

I have also been spending a fair amount of time in woodlands lately.  A new flora discovery for me was this:

Lesser Periwinkle

It doesnt look like much now but when in flower it has beautiful blue-violet 5-petalled flowers (google it).  Despite its ornate appearance it is apparently native in the south.  Great name too.

Ah, get them off me!

Having spent more time rummaging through woods these last couple of weeks I am discovering the wondrous joys of walking through cobwebs very regularly.  Now, I have realised that if am to get on in this industry I am going need to man up a bit, grow a pair, and stop squealing like a 5 year old girl when those sticky wispy webs waft across my face!  So that's my challenge, though I dont think I am ever going to develop an amicable relationship with spiders, no sir.  Look how creepy looking they are!

Garden Spider Araneus diadematus

This is England's common Garden Spider, also sometimes known as the cross spider due to the holy white cross on the abdomen (photographed at Tyland Barn).  This species spin orb webs which are apparently the most advanced webs.  I just ripped this info off the RSPB website but orb webs are built by laying spirals of silk around radial threads and the spider sits in the middle awaiting prey.

I just discovered that baby spiders are called spiderlings, that actually makes them slightly less despicable I think.

Mythical plants and odd bods

I've been having a whistle stop tour of some the Kent Wildlife Trust's Weald reserves.  They are mostly woodland with the odd meadow and heathland.  I haven't been able to take too many photos but there were a couple of interesting finds.

Firstly this creeping woodland plant, Enchanter's nightshade:

Enchanter's nightshade Circaea lutetiana

It is not part of the nightshade family, but belongs instead to the evening primrose family.  It is supposedly named after the Greek goddess of magic, Circe.  Circe was the daughter of the sun and she is known to turn her enemies into animals, especially pigs.

The Ghyll hosts an unusual variation of Elder, Sambucu nigra laciniata, or cut-leaved Elder.  It is very similar to regular Elder but with jagged leaves...

Cut-leaved Elder

Token butterfly picture:

Small Copper

Here is a shrubby tree that we haven't managed to identify.  The closest I have come is Portugal Laurel but I am doubtful.  The leaves have toothed margins.  Any clues welcome...

Maidstone meadow

Had a brief snoop round the meadows and pond at Tyland Barn today (Kent Wildlife Trust).  Spotted a little Dock Leaf Bug which is quite a common species of shield bug.  They can be differentiated by their dark tipped antennae and two little pointers between the antennae.  They apparently spread stinking poison around when threatened which can stain your skin brown for a while.  Luckily my camera didnt scare it otherwise I would have found this out the hard way.  Here he is:

This male Common Darter dragonfly was just chilling out on the bench by the pond.  The females are more yellow/brown coloured.

Common Darter

Field Bindweed