Monthly Archives: March 2012

Buds and blooms

Posted on March 28, 2012 | 15 comments

Many fellow bloggers out there have been posting some lovely images of spring events and as this time of year is an exciting one from a nature perspective I felt inspired to get out and get some pictures of vernal regeneration in my part of the world.

I didn’t have to wander too far, the apple and hazel trees and the beech hedge in my garden are showing signs of waking up from the winter slumber:


Nascent apple blossom about to burst into life

A catkin – the flower of the hazel tree, above. And below, the diminutive inflorescence that will eventually become a hazelnut.

Hazel trees (Corylus avellana) produce catkins early in the year which are monoecious, which means they are either male or female, the one above is a male one, the females being tiny and hidden in the buds and the pollen is wind dispersed.  They provide not only nuts but if left to their own devices hazel ‘poles’ sprout from the ground which grow tall and straight and are coppiced to make fencing, and in the days when wattle and daub was used for building  walls the poles were used to make the wattle on which mud was plastered to provide the daub.

Beech leaves sprouting from the apical buds at the top of a hedge


A couple of hundred metres along the road on the grass verge was this cluster of lesser celandines (Ranunculus ficaria)

According to the font af all wisdom that is Wiki, lesser celandine used to be known as ‘pilewort’ because it was thought of as a remedy for haemorrhoids. I like this cluster because all the flowers are in different stages of opening, from a tightly closed green bud to a fully open flower.

Once into the fields the hedgerows were lined with the thorny stems and freshly shooting leaves of the bramble:

Lining the drainage ditches which delineate the field margins in this part of the world are willow trees (Salix cinerea) which need the water that drains from the fields and in the spring are covered in the furry catkins which give the tree its common name of ‘pussy willow’:

Willow catkin – unlike the hazel the catkins of the willow are dioecious, containing both male and female reproductive machinery in the same catkin

The wood of another species of willow tree (white willow, Salix alba) is very light and very strong and is used to make cricket bats and the bark of the willow contains a compound called salicylic acid which is the chemical precursor of aspirin. The analgesic properties of willow bark have been known of for centuries and have been maximised by acetylating salicylic acid to make aspirin. As well as analgesia, aspirin is now used as an anticoagulant to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and recent studies suggest it may have anti-carcinogenic activity too.

The plants in this post are a random selection from the garden, roadside verge and the countryside within 200 of my house and all of them provide us with something useful. The beech is structural and is ideal for hedging. Apple, bramble and hazel all have edible fruits. Lesser celandine may shrink your chalfonts* and the willow provides drugs to treat pain, heart disease and cancer (not forgetting cricket bats).

* Chalfonts = ‘Chalfont St Giles’ (I’m sure you can work it out)

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Posted in Buxhall Farm Histon, Countryside walks, Flora and fungi, UK wildlife, Walks around Cambridge and Histon

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A short bluesy interlude

Posted on March 28, 2012 | 24 comments

Last Saturday found me in Cambridge with my daughter, and on our meanderings through town we dived into Fopp, which is probably my favourite shop of them all because not only does it sell CD’s (terribly 20th century, I know), but it also has a fair vinyl selection! The upshot of that was that I left for home a good few pounds lighter and a few discs heavier, and one of those discs consisted of the entire recorded output of the original Chicago blues man, Robert Johnson.

So as soon as we got home I inserted said Mr Johnson into the CD player and lost myself in the blues, and whilst I was in my blues-fueled reverie I noticed there was alot of avian activity going on in the garden so I grabbed my camera and spent a few minutes photographing them, so here is a selection of my visitors:

My favourite garden visitor is the dunnock (Prunella modularis, Dansk: jernspurv). He hunkered down in the border and watched me taking photographs

Another species which is appearing more and more often in gardens is the wood pigeon (Columba palumbus, Dansk: ringdue). Wood pigeon are a much maligned species in my opinion, they seem to be universally despised by country folk and shot out of the skies in huge numbers. Having said that, there are huge numbers of them, and I often see flocks of many hundreds or even thousands in Histon and one of these flocks can decimate a fields of sprouting crops in a very short space of time. So it’s understandable that they are not at the top of the farmers’ christmas card list.


Much disliked the wood pigeon may be, but they are handsome birds and more than welcome to refuel in my backyard!

And then who should appear, but my resident blackbirds. The gladiatorial action is long past now and they have settled down to the business of reproduction. I can’t confirm it yet but I think they may have built a nest in one of my bushes. I hope so.


The blackbird male in his new found larder

My wife and daughter created this new flowerbed at the weekend and he spent a good few minutes meticulously turning over the surface on a quest for an insect feast. He’d just finished working his way from one end to the other when the female entered from the left and sent him packing  in short order.


The blackbird female mopping up the insects disturbed by the male

The romance is over now and they’re into the serious business of begetting and raising young. Lots of bird species are currently using my garden so I’ll try to post some more pictures of them in the near future, hopefully including fledglings.

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Posted in Birds, Garden birds, Ornithology, Songbirds, UK wildlife

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The North Fields

Posted on March 17, 2012 | 11 comments

If you’ve been reading my recent posts you’ll know they’ve mainly been from the part of my village (Histon, Cambridgeshire) called Rowleys Meadow. I have two routes out of the village, the Meadow and what I call the North Fields, and the terrain is very different. The Meadow isn’t farmed and has many hedges, thickets and trees and is therefore better for birds in the Winter because it has a much higher density of numbers and species. But now it’s officially Spring, after the Equinox on March 20th/21st, I decided to visit the North Fields which are all under the plough. I’ve been over there on a few evenings at dusk and after dark in the last few weeks and heard golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria, Dansk: hjejle) and skylark on the ground but I haven’t been over there in daytime for a while.

The main reason I headed over there was because I wanted to find out if the large numbers of linnet and corn bunting which disappear from the fields every year at harvest time had returned. My first impression on entering the fields was that I should have gone to the Meadow, there was virtually no movement of any kind, but I stuck to my guns and that turned out to be a good decision. I didn’t expect to see corn bunting, which are becoming increasingly scarce on our farms, yet, but I had only gone half a mile or so before I heard the unmistakeable sound of a male calling. I heard him long before I saw him but I knew where he would be perched from where his song was coming from, it is a favourite perch all the time they are in residence:

Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, Dansk: bomlærke) sitting in a favourite place and singing loud

It’s not the best picture of a corn bunting because the sun was still low in the sky directly behind with a thin layer of high white cloud inbetween. Consequently it was impossible to get anything other than a silhouettte without overexposing the shot, so that’s what I did so his colors can be seen. He wasn’t the only one I saw, there were three altogether, so I hope there’ll be a good few more in the next few weeks.

Another bunting which put in an appearance was a male reed bunting. There were several of these too, and just along the ditch from here was a flock of between 10-20 yellowhammers alternating between a hedgerow and the ground where they were feeding.


Reed bunting male (Emberiza schoeniclus, Dansk: rørspurv)

I didn’t go close enough to photograph the yellowhammers because I didn’t want to disturb them. Well, partly that, but also because I’d been distracted by a pair of hares (Lepus europaeus) chasing each other around in the long grass:

I couldn’t get close enough to get a picture of the whole hare, they were too wary of me and the dog, who’s a lurcher, so their timidity was well justified! But I like the way their ears poked up above the grass with the characteristic black tips.


Skylark waiting on the ground between high speed aerial duels with other larks

The other bird which was present in large numbers was the skylark (Alauda arvensis, Dansk: sanglærke). I stopped counting when I got to 30, and I wasn’t yet half way around my walk. They were on the ground, up high singing the amazing song that is is so much part of a British summer, and chasing each other around just above the ground at high speed in groups of up to around half a dozen.

I saw a TV show some years ago in which skylark song had been hugely slowed down and deconstructed, and they claimed the music of some classical composers (including I think, Beethoven) was based on the same structure. I was left sceptical, not least because Ludwig V was deaf and may therefore have struggled to analyse skylark song. But even so, it was fascinating!


Low level dogfight


High level chase

And singing his heart out

One of my other fascinations is etymology. I think that may originate from speaking two languages, and the first one I spoke, Danish, is one of the precursors of the current one, English, so a large number of English words have their derivation in Danish thanks to our Viking invaders all those centuries ago. The expression ‘larking about’ (and ‘lark’ may well be from the Danish ‘lærke’) originates from falconry. In days of yore, the men would go hunting with their peregrine falcons and the ladies would only be allowed to use the much smaller merlin which couldn’t catch birds bigger than larks. Hence ‘larking about’ became a term of derision based on the size of your falcon.

But I digress. The corn bunting are back, the sky was full of larks and the hares were getting frisky. I’ll keep you posted when the linnet and other summer visitors arrive.

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Posted in Birds, Buxhall Farm Histon, Countryside walks, Ornithology, Songbirds, UK wildlife, Walks around Cambridge and Histon

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I’d just like to thank…

Posted on March 16, 2012 | 17 comments

Some time ago, my blogging colleague Rick, the man behind the superb blog ‘btweenblinks‘ gave the ‘Versatile Blogger Award’ to TheNaturephile. I was extremely pleased that someone liked my blog sufficiently to recognise it in this way but I deferred acceptance because at that time I had only dipped my toe into the waters of the blogosphere and in order to accept the award I had to pass it on to fifteen other worthy blogs. I was only reading a very small number of blogs so I was unable to extend the award to the requisite quota just then.

And then a couple of days ago an email dropped into my inbox from Lorna of ‘lornastearoomdelights‘ which is an utterly delicious blog dedicated to the worship of all things tea, cake and chocolate, and she has awarded me the ‘Very Inspiring Blogger’ award.

I’m now immersed above the knee in the blogosphere and there are enough top quality entries on my blogroll to fulfil the acceptance obligations, which also stipulate thanks to those who nominated TheNaturephile and to include a link to their blogs. The links are above and thank you very much indeed to Rick and Lorna for their nominations. I’m very happy they both consider Thenaturephile worthy of these accolades. Please pay a visit to both blogs and enjoy them as much as I do.

As well as passing on the awards I must share seven snippets of trivia about myself, so I’m going to follow Lorna’s lead and combine the nominations and the trivia in order not to overburden you, dear reader, with stuff you may wish you didn’t know.

First off, my nominations, in no order, for the two awards are as follows. They’re not all nature or photography blogs, just an eclectic selection that make me chuckle, think or simply say ‘Wow!’:

Wandering Woody – http://wanderingwoody.wordpress.com/ – tales of the wild and conservation predominantly from the north east of England

Natures Place – http://beingmark.com/ – some of the finest macro photography I’ve ever seen

naturestimeline – naturestimeline.wordpress.com – fascinating phenological phenomena from southern England

Montana Outdoors – http://montucky.wordpress.com/ – beautiful views of the nature of Montana

My Daily Denmark – http://mydailydenmark.wordpress.com/ – a delightful collection of images of everyday objects from Denmark which remind me of wonderful times spent over there when I was a kid

Pieces of me and other sundry things – http://seekraz.wordpress.com/ – marvellous photographs and thought provoking words from the state of Utah

The Lantern Room – https://thelanternroom.wordpress.com/ – beatifully varied nature photography

Haphazard Linkages – http://haphazardlinkages.wordpress.com/ – highly amusing and interchelated views of society, nature and sundry phenomena.  A very entertaining read

krikitarts – http://krikitarts.wordpress.com/ – wonderful wildlife (including lichens!)

dutchgoesitalian – http://dutchgoesitalian.com/ – pasta, wine architecture and all things cultural from Italia

everyday nature trails – http://theresagreen.wordpress.com/ – natural phenomena from Wales and Spain – two countries covered!

And lastly because this is the newest blog on my list,

stephanielane2012 – http://stephanielane2012.wordpress.com/ – natural and social history from the southern states of the U.S.

And lastly, seven random facts about myself…

1) When I’m not photographing and blogging I’m learning to play bass guitar
2) I love making things out of wood (basic joinery – not cabinet making!) and my ultimate goal is to make a bass
3) Two things make me see red: inconsiderate driving and littering
4) My favourite shops are online, except bookshops and music shops
5) I’ve drunk beer on 4 continents (Africa, Asia, America and Europe) and I love them all, but the best is Adnams Broadside from a pub in Southwold
6) I try not to waste anything, especially energy, so my bike is my transport and I’ve recently installed solar panels on my roof
7) The thing I wish for most is a world that my kids will be happy in

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Posted in Audience appreciation

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More signs of Spring

Posted on March 13, 2012 | 6 comments

The weekend before last, the 3rd/4th of March, was generally pretty murky and grey and generally not very pleasant, but a stroll around the fields and meadows of Histon showed up some encouraging signs of Springtime. To start with, several birds including blackbirds and house sparrows were plucking nesting material out of the shrubbery in my garden.

And in the meadow the buds of the willow, ‘pussy willow‘, were bursting out

…and amongst the buds was this little dunnock singing his head off. Dunnock (Prunella modularis, Dansk: jernspurv) make a big sound for such a small bird. You can here the song here.

And other birds which are all adding to the avian orchestra around here at the moment are the green woodpecker (Picus viridis, Dansk: grønspætte) whose striking call I posted a link to a short while ago:


Not just one green woodpecker, but a pair. There are lots of these in the meadow but it’s seldom I see two together, and even more seldom they let me photograph them!

And this delightful wren who sat high and sung loud

I was very pleased with my wren picture because I rarely see them in a suitable place and they’re usually flitting in and out the undergrowth and don’t stay still for long enough to photograph. And even though it was very murky that morning and I had to use ISO 400, I like this shot. Like dunnock, wrens also make an amazing sound for such a small bird. And wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes, Dansk: gærdesmutte) really are tiny, they are 4-5cm long and weigh approximately 10g but they make a huge sound which is easily recognisable as it’s punctuated by short stretches of ‘whirring’ which differentiates it from other small bird song.

And the last thing to catch my eye on this trip was this tree bark. I couldn’t tell what type of tree it is so I’m waiting for the leaves to open so I can give it it’s proper name, but it has some wonderfully textured bark which is covered in a white mould:


I had to get down and crawl through the leaf litter to get to the base of the tree

Lots of early Springtime phenomena were going on, from pairs of green woodpeckers to singing wrens and blackbirds collecting nesting material. More Springtime firsts next post.

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Posted in Birds, Countryside walks, Flora and fungi, Fungi, Garden birds, Moulds, Ornithology, Songbirds, UK wildlife, Walks around Cambridge and Histon

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Local Histon Lichens

Posted on March 3, 2012 | 23 comments

A closer look at the trees and branches, live and otherwise, in my local meadow which I posted about recently, revealed large quantities of lichen. I’d seen it there before but never really paid it sufficient attention so a couple of weekends ago I decided to rectify this shabby state of affairs.

To my highly untrained eye there didn’t seem to be more than 4-5 species but the ones that were there were present in abundance. There are four basic  morphologies of lichens: they are crustose – the flat ones which form very thin layers, foliose – form leaf like structures but where the leaves lie flat and don’t protrude far from the surface of the substrate, fruticose – have longer branched structures and can look like small shrubs and lastly squamulose –  have horizontal, scaly, overlapping lobes and look rather like some fungi I’ve seen growing on dead wood.


A grey/green crustose species and a fruticose species, the yellow one.

Lichens can be extremely sensitive to pollutants, and as a rule of thumb the foliose species are generally more sensitive and are only found in places where the environment is clean and free of fumes and other chemical pollutants. Consequently the species I find in my local patch, being close to a big town, are of the crustose and fruticose varieties. Sensitivity to pollutants can cut both ways though, those susceptible to acid pollution will obviously suffer in a low pH environment, but others which have a high demand for nitrogen can really benefit from pollution by agricultural fertilisers.

The ones I found were all growing on the surface of live deciduous trees and dead branches and the trees in the meadow are predominantly ash and oak. I’m not going to try to identify the different species here because I don’t have the requisite expert knowledge to unambiguously name lichens, but I plan to do some reading and observing and I’ll post again if I find out what they are. Even though I don’t know the species I think their colours and structures render them particularly photogenic.

The ‘thallus‘ (main body) of the yellow lichen above has the leafy structures of a fruticose species surrounding round saucer shaped structures which are called ‘apothecia‘ and are the reproductive machinery of this lichen. Within the apothecia are tiny structures called ‘paraphyses‘ and these surround the ‘asci‘ from which the fungal spores are generated. Masses of this yellow species covered many trees and fallen branches in the meadow.


Another fruticose lichen which has the leafy structures but no reproductive apothecia – I’m assuming it’s another species and not a different stage in the life cycle of the yellow one


The grey/green species here is definitely a different one. It has some erect leafy and spiky parts and it appears to have apothecia which are more cup shaped

The fungal spores produced from the asci are microspcopic and dispersed on the wind and it is a matter of conjecture how they manage to settle on the requisite species of alga to form a new lichen.

Some species can reproduce both the fungal and the algal part simultaneously by growing structures called ‘lobules‘ or ‘isidia‘ which basically consist of outgrowths of the thallus of crustose or foliose lichens which break off and are dispersed by wind and water. Or there are structures calles ‘soredia‘ which are algal cells enmeshed in a bundle of fungal ‘hyphae‘ (threadlike structures of fungal cells) which are similar to the middle part of the body, the ‘medulla‘.

If anyone out there knows the names of these lichens or has any other snippets of lichen related information please leave a comment as I’d be very interested to hear them.

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Posted in Countryside walks, Flora and fungi, Lichen, UK wildlife, Walks around Cambridge and Histon

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A stroll through the Meadow

Posted on March 3, 2012 | 20 comments

Last Sunday I spent a glorious couple of hours in the piece of scrub near my house where me and the dog while away significant chunks of our time. He chases rabbits, cats, pheasants and generally enjoys doing what dogs do, and I marvel at all the wildlife to be found in my local bit of wilderness. It’s probably about 300m x 150m and it’s called ‘Rowleys Meadow’ even though it’s not a meadow, and it lies on the northern edge of the village with houses lining it’s southern periphery. On the east, west and north side are old hedgerows and some wonderful old trees and in the middle are stands of young ash trees, grassy areas and large clumps of brambles.

It plays host to an astonishing variety of wildlife which in the winter and early spring is mainly birds, although a peacock butterfly fluttered by last Sunday and on several warmer days since Christmas I’ve seen bumble bees flying around there . But on this particular day it was the birds that stole the show (click here for a full list of all my sightings on this outing on February 26th).

There are very healthy numbers of green woodpecker here due to the trees and the grassland where they can find there favourite food of ant and termites. They’re tricky to photograph in the Meadow because they’re hidden in the grass and they’re very skittish, so it’s difficult to get close enough when they’re on the ground or in the trees.

Green woodpecker with his black eyepatch and scarlet military policemans cap. This one did let me get close enough… just

There are regularly 5-10 green woodpeckers (Picus viridis, Dansk: grønspætte) to be found as I circumnavigate the Meadow. It’s easy to spot them, both the colours and the low bouncing flight, often no more than 15 feet from the ground, are very distinctive. And of course it’s call is like no other creature, if you’ve never heard it listen here. Scroll down to the entry from Lars Krogh from Lindet Skov in Denmark dated 19/04/2011 where there is a very good recording of a male greenie yaffling and drumming.

Another bird which I almost always see in the Meadow is the long tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus, Dansk: halemajse). But for the tail, they’re tiny: the adults weigh 7-8g with a wingspan of 18cm. The long tailed tit is one of those creatures that make we wonder how such tiny ones can survive a long freezing winter. They can also be very difficult to photograph as they never stay still for more than a few seconds.


On final approach…

But when you are lucky enough to capture them they make delightful pictures!


Touchdown!

You may have noticed the lichens on the branches, I’ll share some photographs of those in the next post. In another tree adjacent to the one with the long tailed tits was a pair of great tits (Parus major, Dansk: sortemejse), among others. I like great tits, they’re handsome birds and they’re entertaining to watch feeding in my garden, especially when there is a family of them. The pair here are a male and a female:

Male great tit, his black stripe stretches all the way across his chest from toe to toe, making him very desirable indeed. I think the ‘A’ indicates he is the alpha male

The stripe of the female is much narrower:


Great tit female

And very shortly after I took the pictures of the great tits, a female sparrowhawk circled slowly overhead. The trees and hedges suddenly went very quiet as all the small birds concealed themselves from this fearsome predator. I’m not sure if she was hunting as I spotted a second, possibly a male, sparrowhawk circling much higher up. She was probably not more than a hundred feet up, but the male was several hundred feet up. I watched a pair of sparrowhawks do this over my garden once before, where the male was much higher, and I think it may be part of the courtship routine. (If anyone can confirm or refute that please drop me a line and let me know).


A female sparrowhawk circling over the hedges at the north end of the Meadow

All in all it was a very enjoyable and rewarding trip in bright warm sunshine and the  birdlife was there in spades.

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Posted in Birds, Birds of prey, Countryside walks, Garden birds, Ornithology, Songbirds, UK wildlife, Walks around Cambridge and Histon

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All quiet on the Histon Front

Posted on March 3, 2012 | 8 comments

Last weekend I posted about the blackbird war that was taking place in my garden on Saturday morning. By Sunday things appeared to be quiet first thing until two female blackbirds appeared and commenced battling for breeding rights.


One of the feisty females scanning her territory for possible competition

The females chased each other round for about half an hour when who should show up…


Blacktip

Hard on the heels of Blacktip came The Arch Rival, and as soon as the females established their pecking order, battle commenced. At the close of hostilities on Saturday the apparent winner was Blacktip but on Sunday the female appeared to have switched her allegiance and teamed up with The Arch Rival and both of them now joined forces to chase off Blacktip:


The Arch Rival gaining the upper hand


And Blacktip making a tactical withdrawal after some protracted aerial exchanges and succumbing to numerical advantage

Things cooled off considerably after Sunday but minor skirmishes took place until Tuesday with The Arch Rival and his moll the seeming victors. But ever since then the garden has been frequented by various blackbirds including Blacktip. So even if he lost the insemination rights he has still retained access to his feeding territory.

Fascinating stuff!

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Posted in Birds, Garden birds, Ornithology, Songbirds, UK wildlife

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Minsmere in wintertime

Posted on March 2, 2012 | 6 comments

My meanderings around Suffolk in February inevitably led me to RSPB Minsmere. I’d heard there were bittern (Botaurus stellaris, Dansk: rørdrum), which I’ve never seen before, and smew (Mergellus albellus, Dansk: lille skallesluger) which I’ve also never seen, in residence there. Indeed, theere had been an influx of bittern from Holland due to the fierce winter weather there and numbers were up, so I felt a little twitching was in order.

For those of you unfamiliar with the geography, Minsmere is characterised by woodland on the inland side to the north and east with a network of reedbeds and lakes behind a sand and shingle bank running along the coast. It lies between Dunwich Heath and the Coastguard Cottages to the north, and Sizewell to the south. It is a haven for numerous species of bird and my friend told me that on a morning trip there with a dawn start he spotted over 100 species of birds by lunchtime. And I reckon that’s an impressive tally. Many mammals also live and visit here including red deer, fox and otter.

As it is an RSPB reserve there are hides for observing the wildlife and as I set off along the bank which forms the sea defences to find one various gulls and great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus, Dansk: toppet lappedykker) were on the sea. I paused to watch a marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus, Dansk: rørhøg) quartering the reedbeds, and then headed on to an open hide where I installed myself to see what was in residence.


The view from the south end of the hide

From the lower right hand window of the hide are the reedbeds of the reserve and from the upper left window is the reactor dome of Sizewell nuclear power station. The power station reminds me that I’m very grateful for havens such as Minsmere but I also wonder why on earth does it have to be just there, the juxtaposition offends me somewhat. But there it is, so I contented myself with looking out the front of the hide and here are some of the birds I could see:


A lone lapwing foraging for sustenance

Immediately in front of my hide, in which I was the only occupant, was a water filled channel separated from the lakes just beyond by a thin strip of reeds, and immediately to the fore was a single lapwing (Vanellus vanellus, Dansk vibe). Low grassy islands in the lakes were home to various species of duck, the most numerous being…


Teal, two males and a female (Anas crecca, Dansk: krikand)


Shelduck (Tadorna tadorna, Dansk: gravand), and lurking in the background is a shoveler (Anas clypeata, Dansk: skeand)

All of these ducks are resident or nigrant breeders and winter visitors and where I am I only see them in winter. According to the BTO the teal is unusual in that it has no other names in the UK, which is an interesting little factlet which obviously needs to be challenged. If anyone knows of a local name for the teal please let me know. Another amusing piece of nomenclature is the shoveler, so named presumably for its shovel like beak and in Danish is known as the ‘skeand‘, which translates into English as the ‘spoon duck’. It uses it’s magnificent beak to filter small molluscs and crustaceans from the beds of shallow water by sweeping it across the surface and sifting the food from the disturbed sediment.

Alas, most of the birds were just too far away for my 300mm lens, but I plan to upgrade my optics this year so next time I post from Minsmere I’ll hopefully have lots of high quality close ups too.

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Posted in Birds, Coastal walk, Ducks, Dunwich, Minsmere, Ornithology, RSPB reserves, Seabirds, Suffolk coast, UK wildlife, Waders, water birds

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Suffolk Symbionts

Posted on March 2, 2012 | 9 comments

During our trip to the east coast a couple of weeks ago a fair chunk of our time was spent wandering around churchyards and woodland and scrubby heathland. Because the air is so clean in that part of the world the gravestones and the trees, and any dead and rotting wood hosts numerous species of lichen.

A robin watching over the lichen encrusted gravestones in Dunwich St Andrews graveyard

I think lichens are highly under-represented in the annals of popular natural history, but having said that I’ve seen some superb posts from fellow natural history bloggers in the recent past, most notably from  ‘btweenblinks‘ and ‘Montana Outdoors‘

There have not been so many from this side of the Atlantic though so here’s my attempt to showcase some of my local lichens. Lichens are a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga where the fungus gathers nutrients from the substrata and the alga provides the photosynthetic apparatus. I’ve read that there are around 1800 species of lichen in the UK alone and up to 20000 globally. They provide homes for spiders and small insects, and have provided various dyes for colouring cloth and the active ingredient of litmus pH indicator is derived from a lichen. And they make great pictures:


Oak  moss or antler lichen, Pseudevernia furfuracea

Lichens are difficult to identify without a microscope and reagents for analysing them and the substrata they are growing on, so the identifications in this post are from this guide from the Natural History Museum.

I found the antler lichen growing on a deciduous tree at Dunwich Friary and I think there are probabaly another three species of lichen in this photograph, including the common green shield lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata. I took the picture by standing back a couple of metres and using ISO 400, F/8.0 and shutter speed 1/60s, and there was just sufficient light to make it work. The trees were reverberating with the song of great tits and robins while I was on my lichen hunt making it a very enjoyable couple of hours.


Pleurosticta acetabulum

Pleurosticta acetabulum doesn’t have a common name in my NHM guide. I really like the colours in this image, the background is the reedbeds of Minsmere and the diffuse red/brown of the defocussed reeds accentuates the greens, greys and browns of the lichen.

Leafy xanthoria, Xanthoria polycarpa

The leafy xanthoria was ubiquitous in this part of the world, many of the trees were festooned with it. This one was also at RSPB Minsmere with the reedbeds in the background and I like the warm colours especially as this was on a very cold, grey morning.

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