Nature Chain Winsley

  This is the time of year when unexpected wild creatures might pop up in unexpected places. Retrieve a lopper from the garage and a green shadow races along the handles... grab the mobile... focus... no, its rushed on out of frame... it drops, abseiling down to the doormat, web invisible . It’s a chase to focus on this beautiful green Crab Spider . I gently lure it onto a piece of paper and put it amongst the plants. Green and camouflaged it will wait on a green leaf for an unsuspecting insect – lunch! I have seen them pink, more usually white, standing out somewhat against pink Pyramidal Orchids, but presumably its prey is preoccupied with more pressing matters than looking at a motionless elongated white shape . Go to the tree and manoeuvre the loppers to prune a thick twig... it judders, and white flutterings appear and disappear – often White Plume Moths   as daylight is fading. Moths come in many sizes and patterns. Some brilliantly coloured ones were featured i...

  There is an alien world in any tree near you!  are ‘digital doubles’ of a real growing tree - what is going on within above and below ground... and that is the best bit... entwined and connecting its roots and roots of plant neighbours are fungal threads.  They are the real world-wide web, for these are mycorrhiza – fungi which spread vast distances, connecting plants and swapping water and nourishment from the soil for the plants’ sugars. Thus, this tree can better thrive and flourish, be warned of insect/grazing attack on its neighbours and regulate its internal chemistry to best advantage in response to changing circumstances. There will be lots more amazing staggering info on these recent important discoveries in Nature Chain’s October 13 th Fungus Event. This 6 m. high screen ( 2, 3 ) shows what is really happening in and around a tree using advanced techniques - CT scanning of soil samples and ground-penetrating radar to trace the roots network, al...

Planting for Climate... To Plant, or Not to Plant, that is the question! “To be, or not to be...” is Shakespeare’s actual quote, part of Hamlet’s contemplation of life and death. Strange thoughts you might think while planning planting in a garden... but not so strange when coping with the  vagaries and extremes of climate. In every garden there are dried up dead leaves, a plant fighting, and hopefully, a plant showing resilience to drought. Thinking of our wildlife needs, traditional British species spring to mind as first choice. But our ten-year old kids won’t be experiencing the same climate as us when they have ten-year olds. Serious, non-sensational, scientific predictions are that they will be feeling the warmth of our holiday destinations: the Mediterranean, south-east Africa (Photos 1, 2, 3 in the Scillies), parts of Australia ( in the Scillies), China, USA and South America. Species from these regions are predicted to be flourishing here in the future. Nothing new there!...

Early Autumn Fruits  Summer heat makes an early Autumn! Hawthorn hedges heavily laden with berries have been reddening since mid-August. Pendulous plummy fruits dangled bright yellow and red. I had despaired of fruit from the Cherry Plum in Green Lane which was thick with white blossom (265) Read more in February Four Wood Pigeons, day after day, had methodically picked out the flowers and subsequently guzzled incessantly on the swelling green fruits... but it did turn out ok. By the end of July (5) yellow bounty duly arrived and after such a season of blossom and extremes pigeons and people finally had so many fruit choices that fruits lay in profusion on the ground – the first time in decades! Strange that passersby, foragers included, ignored them in preference to misplaced optimism for some overhanging unripe apples – sour cookers! (Cherry plums are nice stewed with a little sugar!) ... But somewhere there was a creature gathering them up and gorging in a quiet place. 30 m. up ...

Bats in the Barn! ‘I’ve got a present for you!’ A big grin and Ellie held out her closed hand... last time she did this, a little face was peering out, a face like a Disney cartoon, alert bright eyes, alert big ears. She had brought the tiny endangered Bechstein’s Bat rescued from the road outside our garden...she had nurtured it back to strength and was about to release this little female into her home territory Flying with new-found strength and purpose, the bat had flown directly towards our big old Bramley tree. Ellie is a bat expert and licenced to handle bats. Her expertise and passion for her work is a particular delight for me because as a little girl of eight in my Wildlife Watch Group, she became inspired to help conserve animals and their habitats. Today, Ellie and her partner (also an expert, a tree surgeon) were preparing to climb a ladder and hang our new bat box in the big old walnut tree on the dangerous slope at the top of the garden Bat Gardening Tip : She had alr...