Honey bees face many threats - such viruses, mites and pesticides, but also threats from their own kind - robber bees.   When nectar becomes scarce at the end of the summer and into autumn, then bees will seek food wherever they can find it - like honey from other colonies.  From the robber bees ‘point of view’, this is simply another form of foraging behaviour.  This robbing of honey deprives a colony of an important winter resource.   To limit this behaviour, hives have guard or gatekeeper bees, who ‘inspect’ all arriving bees.  But how do they know who is friend and who is foe?  Not being able to tell the difference could mean a long and lean winter, with little honey in the hive.  Honey bees can recognise members of their community / hive by detecting waxy chemicals present in their exoskeleton (cuticle) known as cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC’s). Read more...

The woodland’s blog has reported on various tree planting initiatives, particularly that presented by the CCC (Committee on Climate change).  This Committee has called for some 1.5 billion new trees to be planted by 2050.   This would require approximately 30,000 hectares of land to be planted each year.  If this were to happen, it would increase Britain’s forest / woodland cover from 13% to 19%; probably the highest level since Roman times.  Sir Harry Studholme, the outgoing chairman of the Forestry Commission has said that such a target is achievable but has urged caution so that mistakes of the past are not repeated.  Read more...

This year saw the lowest recorded numbers of butterflies in the count for over a decade. In fact, the count has has seen a reduction in the average number of butterflies logged in the count by approximately a third,  when compared to 2019.  However,1.4 million butterflies were counted across the UK and on a positive note, public participation was high. There are always variations in the numbers year on year, for example,  last year’s numbers were swelled by an influx of the migratory painted lady butterfly. The decline in numbers this year could be due to various factors but the unusually warm spring meant that many species emerged earlier than usual.  This may mean that the actual count took place at the ‘tail end’ of the flight period of the butterflies. Read more...

There is something quite exhilarating about the smell of autumn, and I immediately picked up on it on my first evening woodland walk after the Autumn equinox a few weeks back. The earthy richness that hits the nostrils as your feet scuffle through the newly fallen leaves, and the overwhelmingly sharp freshness of the damp air tinged with the lingering perfume of ivy seems to reawaken the senses after the torpor of Summer. Camus put it nicely when he wrote, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”  Smell is a sense that is often overlooked when it comes to identifying fungi, although any encounter with a stinkhorn, its viscid dark green tip (or gleba) swarming with flies attracted by its ripe miasma, is proof enough of the importance of these chemical signals in the spore dispersal process. Read more...

There are two main species of walnut tree - Black Walnut and English (or Persian) Walnut.  Walnut trees are often grown in the U.K. as an ornamental or specimen tree in parks or gardens.  However, there are areas where the trees are grown for their timber or the nut crop.  The Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) is native to eastern North America; Missouri is one of the top producers of the nuts.  Whilst the nuts have an intense flavour, their tough coats represent a challenge.  Black Walnuts have had a number of uses over the years, some of them associated with the U.S. military. Read more...

Hawkweeds are wild flowers of dry, grassy places, but also to be found on walls, rocky places, and pavements. Some are regarded as invasive species in some parts of the world. The botanical genus Hieracium is known by the common name : the hawkweeds.  It is thought that the common name derives from the writings of Pliny the elder, who believed that hawks sprinkled sap from the plants into their yellow eyes to dispel dimness.  The genus is a member of the sunflower / daisy family: the Asteraceae. They are closely related to dandelions (Taraxacum) and sow thistles (Sonchus). There are thousands of different Hawkweeds;  but botanists classify British hawkweeds into about 340 “species”, many of which are quite rare. Identifying them is difficult and best attempted when there is fresh growth and new leaves.  The classification of the hawkweeds is difficult, partly because the plants use apomictic reproduction. This means that seeds that are formed without the usual processes of pollination and fertilisation.  Read more...

It was in 2018 when I wrote about the pair of Tawny Owls that nested in the crook of the tree in the busiest part of our wood. We believe that one owlet fledged that year. In the autumn of the year before, we had put up a nest box in a quiet part of the wood. The pair of owls had shown some interest, but eventually the box was taken over by squirrels which we regularly evicted. We finally we blocked the entrance for the year – it was owls or nothing.  In 2019, the pair of owls continued to show occasional interest in the box. Also, we assume they nested that season, but where, we don’t know.  In January 2020, we put up a second nest box in a different part of the wood. We were aware that it was too late in the season for the owls to choose it as a nest site, Read more...