Nature Notes

[ErrolTheDragon]

There's a gardening thread which may overlap with this one but I thought people might like to share nature sightings as the season changes. What we see if we can get out for a walk, plants coming into leaf and bloom, creatures in the garden, birds flying overhead - whatever.

Yesterday along the canal: busy wrens, 3 butterflies (tortoiseshell I think). Lots of Lords and Ladies arrow-shaped leaves. A little bank of primroses, lots of celandines and some wood anemones. Yellow iris leaves starting to shoot up in the edge of the canal.

We're on holiday in the southwest so a bit milder than where we live. The moorland we were on today had the large type of heather still with some purple though mostly faded to a warm brown, mingling beautifully together with the brightness of gorse and the various greens of gorse leaves, bracken and grass.
The trees aren't showing much sign of turning yet, except for mountain ash which I'm not sure are all behaving normally - quite a lot seem to have masses of berries but the leaves look as though they're dying in situ rather than turning and falling.

Went for a walk in the woods today conker hunting. Seen loads of robins and two red squirrels playing in the trees

Lots of chestnut trees around here, so the ground is littered with little green 'hedgehogs'. There are lots of cyclamen naturalised in the bottom of hedgerows which are very pretty.

We don't get many conkers where I live, which is a shame. I loved collecting them as a child.

I saw three different types of mushroom yesterday, including what looked like two massive field mushrooms the size of a side plate. I wish I could id them as I'd love to forage for mushrooms but it's too risky with my limited knowledge.

Yes - we've seen lots of weird and wonderful fungi, plus some which look like edible field mushrooms but we'd never dare try them.

Masses of blackberries in the green lanes, and lots of Ivy flowers for the bees.

My husband has an app for identifying mushrooms but not sure I 100% trust it

Yeah, I'm not sure I would trust an app either with mushrooms. Years ago I spent a summer working as a field assistant to a research scientist in Hungary. Mushroom foraging was very popular there and you could take your haul to the pharmacy for identification. I think something like that in the UK would be great

Well I've had my first ever tick!

After more than a year of keeping a close eye on my local river, I finally spotted a dipper. In fact, I saw three! They were worth the wait. Such gorgeous little birds 🥰

@Thirstquenching

Well I've had my first ever tick!

I've never had one - DH has had a few (and the dog, of course). We have a tick card, it works well.

We saw quite a few dippers down in exmoor/Quantocks. We have them locally too.
Footage of them hunting underwater is awesome!

My local river is supposed to be one of the best in Wales for spotting dippers, but that hasn’t translated into many sightings yet!

The ones I saw yesterday were actually in the river mouth, so practically on the beach! It was the last place I expected to see them, but the lack of trees and shrubs around them did give us a very good view of them, I wonder if they came down because the speed of the water further upstream was a bit too extreme for them after yesterday’s torrential downpours? 🤔

What is a tick card?

The birds are starting to return to the bird feeders now the weather has turned. I've seen a fat robin and lots of sparrows today

A tick card is a credit card piece of plastic with a couple of little slots of different sizes which is remarkably effective at removing ticks whole.

tickcard.co.uk

(Hope I'm not talking at cross purposes and your tick was in fact a mark of approval)

I will mostly definitely be buying a tick card! Really struggled to get it off one handed ( it was on my arm ) my husband gets them all the time he is a keen hill walker

There's a nice Nature Notebook column today.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nature-needs-a-helping-hand-to-keep-ponds-alive-rk7rbrrxf?shareToken=f24b69fdbeb717bdfba6a97b2e533b67

Some of the trees are starting to change colour at last, though not too quickly.

Got out for a great walk today at the local Rspb nature reserve. Seen hundreds of geese, a bird of prey ( couldn't make it out, it was very high ) and alot of mushrooms. A day like that is good for the soul

It certainly is good for the soul @Thirstquenching!

I went to a National Trust garden yesterday and noticed the same thing as you @ErrolTheDragon. The colours are changing, but only slowly.

I went to do some sea bird spotting today. Didn’t see too many birds, but I did see a pod of Risso dolphins, so I really have nothing to complain about!😂

I had hoped to get to our local RHS garden for a wander today but the kids have covid so we are home for a while.

I had to get my nature fix from some pond watching in the garden. I spotted snails, backswimmers, water boatmen and dragonfly nymphs. I also spotted some lizards basking next to the ponds in the sun

Had a very eventful walk today. The wee boy tripped and fell into a wasps nest. Hes ok but myself and my husband both ended up with multiple stings. Very painful!

On a plus note I heard deer rutting for the first time in my life

that sounds very painful. Glad your boy is ok.

Thank you. Luckily he is ok

I got a photo of the swan family and then a few yards later a heron. I also videoed the latter - it was on the path some way ahead and walked for a while as I followed it till at last it flew over to the other side of the canal and posed perched.

First frost here this morning!