Snowdrops

The Snowdrops are certainly later this year.

Through the ice

I took a little walk along the northern end of leg 1 today. It was about 1° in the sun and zero in the shade. This part of the walk is under Ash trees and has an excellent wet area in a rutted entrance to a field.

Given the long spell of cold weather I was quite surprised to find so many plants showing new growth.

First, Brooklime - one of the Speedwells:

Note the fallen piece of the lichen Ramalina fastigiata floating on the Ash seed.

Next, a few specimens of Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot were actually encased in ice:

Watercress was also making an appearance:

The back of the stream was covered in plants of all kinds. This shot has Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage (centre), Lesser Celandine (top), Cow Parsley (left), and Hard Fern (left).

The back of the stream is also home to a wide range of liverworts. The central specimen is the thallose liverwort Conocephalum conicum on a background of a much smaller liverwort that I haven't had time to identify yet. Conocephalum group about 15 cm. across.

And here's a close-up of the thallus:

Sign of spring?

Despite the frost and snow and sleet, I found a Willow with catkins beginning to show:


"Which Willow?" I hear you ask. "A hybrid", I reply.

First flowers

I can always guarantee that the first flowers of the year will be some Lesser Celandines at the edge of the stream under the Ash trees. Although it's dark, the area is south-facing and sheltered.

Cold start to 2009

I'm still investigating the Pine needles, and on my latest trip I glanced over my shoulder for some reason and saw this fox examining my footprints in the snow:

Not much of a shot, but the camera always has the macro lens attached and the fox was 100m away.

Pine mystery update

After examining dozens of needles very closely, I stumbled across the following specimen which shows a brown needle with an intact green area at the tip.



Even closer examination shows that the brown areas of the needle are in fact hollow, and the needles have been eaten from the inside, thereby killing them. This is indicative of micromoth leaf-miners, and research shows that there are perhaps 8 to 10 candidate species of micromoth which eat Pine needles in this manner. What I need to do next year is to take needle samples with occupant larvae and breed them through to the adult stage for identification.

And yes, the adult micromoths are, indeed, tiny.

So that's it for 2008, the year with the worst weather I can remember. Still, I don't feel too bad: I managed 89 posts, which is roughly one every 4 days. In addition, I was talking to a local gentleman of 87 years, who said it's the worst year for weather in his memory, too.

Scots Pine mystery

In one particular part of the young coniferous plantation, Scots Pine trees are growing in a peculiar manner. This is a shot of an affected tree:

Note the 'pom pom' effect on the branches.

Here's a close-up of an affected shoot:

The damage appears to be caused by clusters of needles dying and dropping off:


This shot shows that multiple areas of single plants are simultaneously affected:

I was told that the effect can be caused by the European Pine Sawfly, but my research shows that this sawfly damages needles in a completely different way: by eating them down to the branch. So it looks like I'm back to square one on this one.