Category: Cliff Ridge Wood
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Dægeseage
It never ceases to amaze me how much our earliest ancestors were in tune with nature. Or perhaps it’s should be a question of how much modern man is so out of touch. Who is awake at dawn nowadays to notice the humble daisy with its white petals closed tight cupping the cluster of tiny…
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A whiter shade of grey
I’ve been stalking this squirrel all week. It’s far more timid than other grey squirrels which I suppose has helped it to survive. I took this during a ten minute stand off. I lost patience first and tried to get closer, then ignominiously slipped down a bank. This is the third time I’ve seen a…
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Nuthatch
You will probably hear this little bird before you see it. It’s very vocal, singing a variety of loud songs with lots of different whistle-sounding notes. It’s the nuthatch, nut jobber, nut cracker, nut pecker or wood cracker. All referring to its habit of lodging nuts in crevices in the bark of trees to crack…
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Fly Agaric
A damp stroll this morning. Most toadstools I come across are usually past their sell-by date. Dirty, forlorn, and partially eaten by insects. This one seems pristine and the classic toadstool as drawn in children’s books; the Fly Agaric or Amanita muscaria, poisonous twice over. One poison is muscarine, causing nausea and vomiting eventually leading…
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Bramble leaves
Battered by Storm Callum. Ninety minutes running with eyes down glimpsing the occasional red leaf amongst the browns and yellows. The red of the bramble must be my favourite autumnal colour. Anthocyanins are chemicals found in the blackberries and synthesise in some of its leaves when sugar levels increase in the Autumn, giving them their…
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Coal Tit
An early stroll in the sunshine with the dog. This little tit caught my eye, performing acrobatics on the downy seed heads of a thistle. It didn’t stay long before dashing off only to return a moment later; repeated this several times in the brief period I watched. Constantly on the go. I’m pretty sure…
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Wakey, wakey, campers
Out and about in Cliff Rigg Wood early on a lovely fresh morning, the start of the weekend, but then I smelt smoke, and then a red mist covered my eyes. But maybe the tents won’t be torched, easier than packing, the brown stuff on the baby wipes on the path is only just chocolate,…
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Robin’s pincushion
Every so often nature springs a surprise. This dog rose in Cliff Ridge Wood appears to have grown some pretty little red “flowers”. These are in fact galls, a reaction in the plant tissue to the laying of eggs in the leaf buds by a gall wasp, Diplolepis rosae. The wasp lays up to 60…
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Common spotted orchid
Out litter picking after a hot weekend and came across this orchid. The name suggests it may be common but finding it growing in abundance in an abandoned quarry well used as a playground by BMX bikers is heartening. Open Space Web-Map builder Code
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Husband and wife trees
Thirteen years ago in February, we had snow and I was fascinated by a pair of intertwined beech saplings. Over the years one tree has dominated and has perhaps doubled in circumference whereas the subservient tree, if that is the right term, as hardly grown at all. The two trees have grafted together. The layers…