Phenology is about observing natural events and recording when things happen.   For example, when ash or horse chestnut trees come into leaf, when the first swifts are sighted or bumblebees emerge from their nests. These timings vary from year to year. By recording such events over many years, it is possible to look for trends and see if they are associated with changes in the weather or other phenomena. Climate change has resulted in significant changes in summer and winter temperatures, and rainfall patterns.    For example,  April, May and June of 2018 were all very warm, each being at least 1.9°C above average [that is the 30 year average for 1961–90]; June was the third warmest June for the UK since 1910. Read more...

Winter, and Christmas in particular, is linked with foods and flavours that perhaps we do not experience at other times of the year.  Think of the distinctive smell and taste of the Christmas Pudding with its many ingredients, the cranberry sauce with the turkey, mince pies (with their mixed fruits) and perhaps exotic crystallised figs; all examples of seasonal fare.   The ingredients for some of these may be raised in your garden or come from much further afield.   If we look back in time, then our ancestors would have gathered, stored, and preserved a wide range of foraged fruits and ‘seeds’ to ‘see them through’ the harsher winter months.  They had techniques and recipes for preserving fruits / roots etc. through the winter when fridges and freezing had not been thought of; except for the ice houses on the estates of the landed gentry. In relatively recent times, there has been renewed interest in foraged food such as chestnuts, sloes etc - see Richard Mabey’s book “ Food for Free."  Read more...

Christmas is a good time to go for a woodland walk .... and for presents. For children, there's nothing better as a motivator than a quiz. So we are offering to send entrants a prize of a woodlands notebook and tree poster which we will post to you as soon as we get your entry if it's valid - maximum 40 prizes. Read more...

In recent times, new or different threats have emerged to upset the balance of woodland and forest ecosystems.   In the 1960’s and early 70’s concern focussed on the effects of air pollution, particularly the effects of acid rain.  This type of pollution was characterised by the deposition / assimilation of sulphur dioxide and its derivatives (sulphuric & sulphurous acid), plus various nitrogen oxides.  This air pollution was largely due to industry and traffic. Some of the most striking effects of ‘acid rain’ pollution were seen in the coniferous forests of Germany - where it was termed : Waldsterben [Wald=forest plus sterben=to die].  Read more...

I’ve written about the ascomycetes, or sac fungi, in several previous blog posts, but as well as giving a special festive twist to this December’s Fungi Focus, the Holly Speckle (Trochila ilicina) provides as good an opportunity as any other for a recap on the subject. Quite distinct from basidiomyces, which produce their spores on specialised spore-bearing structures known as basidia found on the gills of our more familiar cap-and-stem types (or in the pores of the boletes ), the ascomycetes are characterised by the way in which they produce their spores inside tube-like sacs contained within specialised fruiting bodies known as ascocarps, which are then shot out dramatically like balls from a ping-pong ball gun into the atmosphere. Read more...