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Wildlife Garden blog

2 Posts tagged with the hornbeam tag
Caroline - Wildlife Garden manager
0

It's been a while since we reported from our Wildlife Garden but work continues outdoors - and we've been enjoying the season's wildlife gardening and wildlife watching. Here we share a few hightlights from the past two months.

 

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The Museum as seen through the Garden's trees

© Jonathan Jackson

 

Throughout October and early November flashes of deep orange were spotted over the ponds, belonging to the common darter dragonfly (Sympetrum striolatum). They darted from the chalk to main pond, male and female in tandem, with the female ovipositing (laying eggs) near clumps of water soldier (Stratoides aloides) that I'd already eyed up for removing during our planned pond clearing day. The sight of this acrobatic pair laying eggs did of course change our plans slightly to avoid disturbing recently laid eggs.

 

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Common darter dragonfly in September. The last sighting this year was on 4 November

© Jonathan Jackson

 

The female lays eggs directly into the water during the late summer months, and sometimes into autumn as was the case this year. The eggs over-winter and hatch into larvae the following spring. Later in the summer, the full-grown larva crawls out of the water up on to a plant stem - such as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) or reed sweet grass (Glyceria maxima) - before emerging transformed into a beautiful dragonfly. To find out more about dragonflies visit the British Dragonfly Society's website.

 

Flashes of gold and red goldfinches have recently been seen foraging amongst alder cones and teasels. Our beautiful autumn visitors, goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis), have also been heard and seen squabbling amongst greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) around the bird feeders.

 

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European goldfinch feeding on teasels

© David Tipling Photo Library

 

Throughout the mild days of October our Bee Tree honey bees were still collecting pollen from ivy and any remaining flowers such as black horehound. They were also spotted around the entrance to the hives on warm November days. They are fastidious in their personal hygiene and, as bee-keeper Luke Dixon informs me, will take advantage of warm winter days to exit the hive and freshen up.

 

There are a few flowers remaining in our garden now and they include several blooms of bedraggled hedge bedstraw (Galium mollugo), the bright pink of red campion (Silene dioica) and dwarf gorse. There is one new flower of the season and this is the fresh yellow of common gorse. As the flowers of dwarf gorse (Ulex minor) fade the flowers of common gorse (Ulex europaeus) begin to bloom and next year dwarf gorse will take over again for a few months ... giving rise to the old saying "When gorse is in blossom, kissing is in season."

 

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Common gorse - the first flowering date this autumn was on 28 October

© Jonathan Jackson

 

But it is the golds and yellows of beech, hornbeam and field maple that are sensational again this year. Museum photographer, Jonathan Jackson, captured these colourful images just last week:

 

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Beech (Fagus sylvatica) between meadow and chalk downland habitats

© Jonathan Jackson

 

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Beech leaves

© Jonathan Jackson

 

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Field maple (Acer campestre) in a hedgerow

© Jonathan Jackson

 

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Hazel (Corylus avellana)

© Jonathan Jackson

 

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Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

© Jonathan Jackson

 

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Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur)

© Jonathan Jackson

 

And though few berries remain - the blackbirds have stripped rowan of its fruits early this autumn compared to last year - there are still remains of shocking pink spindle berries, with their orange seeds just visible.

 

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Fruits of spindle (Euonymus europaeus)

© Jonathan Jackson

 

For more about seasonal sightings in other areas visit Nature's Calendar from the Woodland Trust.

1857 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: wildlife_garden, honey_bees, field, hornbeam, hazel, dwarf_gorse, common_darter_dragonfly, water_soldier, reed_sweet_grass, purple_loosestrife, european_goldfinch, european_greenfinch, common_gorse, beech, maple, pedunculate_oak, spindle, nature;s_calendar
Caroline - Wildlife Garden manager
3

As the woodland habitats in the Wildlife Garden mature, the pageant of autumn colour seems to increase in intensity each year. Museum photographer, Jonathan Jackson (who needs little encouragement to escape the studio and work with living natural history), spent some time in the garden 2 weeks ago shooting many beautiful images, including most of the photos below. And Larissa Cooper, who joined us nearly 3 months ago, adds some of her own and describes her first autumn in the Wildlife Garden:

 

"As the autumnal chill creeps up on us, the many different (mostly native) trees we have in the garden begin to show off their colours before being cast away now their job has been done.


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The colours of the garden vary as the leaves begin to fall. The first tree to drop its leaves was the common lime (Tilia x europea).


It’s a beautiful but busy time for us in the garden. Leaves are broken down on the woodland floor by decomposers such as fungi and detritivores like millipedes and earthworms. However the non-native London plane trees (Plantanus x hispanica) cover the garden with large leathery leaves which are a bit too much for our native flora, such as bluebells, to push through.

 

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Fungi growing from decaying wood sits in front of a fallen plane tree leaf (Photo: L.Cooper)

 

 

3 (Custom).jpgLondon plane tree leaves lie with rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)


Enter the wildlife gardeners, volunteers and occasionally other staff with our rakes and trusty shredder, giving nature a little helping hand to break down the leaves. Looking out for frogs and toads hiding from the cold we gently rake and remove the plane tree leaves. being careful not to damage any seedlings and delicate plants. By December we will have raked and shredded tonnes of leaves, and scattered the shreddings back onto the woodland floor to allow a buildup of decomposed leaves.

 

 

4 (Custom).JPG Not all the leaves are shredded, the poplar (Populus nigra 'Italica') leaves which fall around the greenhouse are mixed with straw from the sheep shed and composted (Photo: L.Cooper)


But raking leaves aside; it gives us a chance to see the beauty of the changing colours around us. The beech (Fagus sylvatica) trees turn amber while the poplar leaves change to a vibrant yellow.

 

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Beech trees behind the meadow show off their varying colours

 

The plants around the pond die back diverting the attention to the golden reeds which complement the colours of the early autumnal evenings.

 

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Common reeds (Phragmites australis) turn a golden brown

 

While the holly holds its colour, with dashes of red from the berries, the spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus) displays an almost tropical array of fuchsia-coloured berries.

 

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Spindle berries add a touch of pink to the usual reds, yellows and browns of autumn

 

 

It is all such a treat so see on a daily basis!"

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The main pond is surrounded by autumnal colours

 

 

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The bright yellows of the hornbeam are reminiscent of summer glowing on a clear chilly autumnal afternoon

 

Thank you to Larissa and Jonathan for the blog and photos.

2451 Views 3 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: wildlife_garden, common_reed, autumn_colours, native_trees, detritivores, toads, wildlife_garden_volunteers, common_lime, spindle_tree, plane_tree, hornbeam, spindle_berries, beech_tree, poplar_tree, rowan_tree


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