Autumn

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Bryn Pydew, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature of woodlands, nature photography, North Wales, Wildflowers of Wales, woodland walks in Wales

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ash leaves, autumn colour, autumn leaves, eristalis pertinax, fallen leaves, goldenrod, hazel leaves, North Wales Wildlife Trust, oak leaves, puffball fungus

Autumn in North Wales is glorious this year thanks to a prolonged sunny and mild spell of weather, as yet broken only occasionally by rain. Walking between the trees in the dappled shade of the woodland along sun-striped paths thickly carpeted with fallen leaves in all the shades of the season, has been truly joyful. As October draws to an end, here are some of my views of the month.

Ivy is flowering now providing vital supplies of pollen and nectar to late-flying insects.

Ivy is flowering

Ash trees leaves have mostly turned to a bright yellow.

Ash tree canopy

Many have already fallen.

Strings of Black bryony berries are strung between stems of lower-storey vegetation

Black Bryony berries

Hazel leaves fallen

Oak trees are in varying shades, some still retaining a lot of green where they are in shade while those exposed to more sunlight have turned golden.

Last year there was a national shortage of acorns and here at least it doesn’t look as though this year is going to be any more productive.

Sessile Oak and acorns

151008-Bryn Pydew (37a)-Cherry gall under oak leaf

Cherry gall under an oak leaf

Female Yew trees have ripening pink-red berries

On the woodland edges and in clearings there is still plenty to see.

151008-Bryn Pydew (2a)-Blackberries & clematis

Late blackberries and Old Mans Beard

In a sunny spot I watched a gathering of a dozen or so hoverflies. Some were hovering and darting around, others were attempting to bask in the sunshine but were deliberately disturbed by their dive-bombing peers.

151008-Bryn Pydew (11a)-Eristalis hoverfly

Bryn Pydew-Eristalis pertinax

On limestone pavement I found Herb Robert leaves that have turned beautiful shades of red

Goldenrod is a favourite late flowering plant

Goldenrod

although most plants have set seed by now.

Goldenrod seedheads

Tucked into a damp sheltered corner where two quarried limestone walls meet, a maidenhair spleenwort fern remains fresh and green.

And of course there are fungi, this is one of the few that I recognise!

Puffball

And to finish, a corvid feather, just because I liked it.

Last of the butterfly days

21 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, butterflies, Butterflies of Wales, Insects, Nature, nature photography

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butterflies on sea cliffs, common blue, lassiomata megera, Red Admiral, silver y moth, speckled wood, Wall, Wall butterfly

October generally sees the last of the butterflies on the wing, but it would seem that records of species emerging earlier and flying later are increasing, which may or may not be attributable to global warming. I was surprised to learn that as many as thirteen species have been recorded as being out and about throughout the UK in this month of the year: it is rated as a ‘low-flight period’ for them, whose duration must surely be dependent on the local weather conditions and available food supplies.

The species on the list of those that may be seen this month are Brimstone, Large White, Small White, Small Tortoishell, Red Admiral, Peacock, Painted Lady, Comma, Wall, Speckled Wood, Small Heath, Small Copper and Brown Hairstreak.

My own list of butterfly species photographed here in North Wales in October is significantly shorter, to date comprising only two mentioned on the above list; the hardy Speckled Wood and the Red Admiral. I have yet to see a Brimstone, let alone a Brown Hairstreak in any month here, and the latest I’ve recorded Small Copper and Small Heath has been during early-mid September. I may well have seen glimpses of some of the others but not on a regular basis.

2/10/15-Speckled Wood on oak leaves

13/10/11-Red Admiral on ivy flowers

18/10/14-Red Admiral basking on a muddy woodland ride

8/10/15-Common Blue-Bryn Pydew

Probably due to this year’s glorious mild and sunny autumn, I do have one to add this year and that is a Blue. At Bryn Pydew there were several, probably Common Blues but as they were all in varying degrees of faded, it was difficult to say for sure. They were not really actively flying around, but rather keeping low in the grass either perched or flitting short distances amongst the low-growing plants then perching again.

8/10/15-Common Blue-Bryn Pydew

There was a more mobile Silver Y moth there too, who ended up landing on a bunch of ash keys dangling high above my head.

8/10/15-Silver Y moth on Ash keys-Bryn Pydew

Now, before our beautiful butterflies fade from our summer memories completely, I wanted to bring special attention to one of those that is on the list of 13 that I encountered on the Little Orme in September of this year; a Wall, or Wall Brown.

This was my first and, to date, only sighting of a Wall, Lasiommata megera, in North Wales and seeing it was an unexpected treat for me, particularly as I later learned that this species is far less common that it used to be. Quoted from the UK Butterflies website: “There has been a severe and worrying decline of inland populations of the species, with most remaining populations now being found in coastal areas. This species is therefore a priority for conservation efforts.” It doesn’t appear to be numerous on the coast either, at least not here.

150916-Little Orme 6a-Wall Brown on eyebright (2)

150916-Little Orme-Wall Brown- Lasiommata megera on eyebright

The day of my sighting I was walking on a path on the edge of the clifftop of the Little Orme. The day was beautifully sunny but with a strong cold wind blowing in off the Irish Sea, which may well have brought the butterfly here. It was in an almost-perfect condition and flying low to take nectar from various tiny eyebright and cranesbill flowers.

It stayed around for just long enough to allow me to get some images of it in various poses (the butterfly and me as it was so low on the ground) before it took off, probably in search of a more substantial meal.

(More info on this butterfly: https://theresagreen.me/about-the-blog/species-lists/butterflies-of-wales/ )

PS – I’d love to hear if you have more October species to add from other parts of the country.

Wildflowers on a Limestone pavement

27 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, Butterflies of Wales, Limestone Pavement, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, North Wales Wildlife Trust, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

bloody cranesbill, Brown Argus, common blue, common rockrose, common shrew, dropwort, heath-spotted orchid, limestone pavement, North Wales Wildlife Trust, salad burnet, small heath, wildflowers of Bryn Pydew

The North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve at Bryn Pydew is becoming one of my new favourite places to visit, especially to see some of our less-common wildflowers and a variety of insects.

The first thing to attract my attention today was a Small Heath butterfly. Fluttering along low to the ground it kept disappearing from my sight as it landed amongst the stems of long grass, but I managed to follow it along the woodland edge for a short way until I was distracted by the corpse of a little shrew. It didn’t appear to have been there for long, but there were puncture wounds around its back so had clearly been caught by something with sharp teeth and the fact that it had not been eaten suggests a domestic cat; they don’t like the taste of shrew and often leave their victims lying at the side of paths etc.

Common Shrew – Sorex araneus Welsh: Llyg Cyffredin

British shrews are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is an offence to kill them without a special licence.

Description: As with all shrews, the common shrew has a long, flexible snout, small eyes and tiny ears. They have dark brown fur on their backs, paler sides and an even paler underside. Their heads are not as domed in shape as that of the even smaller pygmy shrew and the tail is proportionately shorter than that of the smaller species.

Food: All shrews have voracious appetites; they need to feed every 2-3 hours and consume up to 90% of their body weight in any 24 hour period. They eat most terrestrial insects, but also take worms, slugs and snails; they have a good sense of smell and feeling, but they do not dig for their prey.They lack the fat reserves to see them though the winter so do not hibernate and can be seen all year round. Apart from those killed by cats, shrew corpses may also be those of animals that have not been able to find enough food.

Behaviour: They are solitary, territorial animals and often fight when they come into contact with their neighbours. The high pitched squeaking sound that they make can often be heard as you walk along footpaths; they are most active at night and during dawn and dusk and intersperse periods of intense activity with resting.

Reproduction

Shrews build nests below the ground or under dense vegetation. After a gestation period of 22-25 days, females give birth to 4-7 young, which are weaned after 22 days. They breed from April to October, with a peak in the summer.

_______________________________________________________

I lost the butterfly but was soon compensated with a lovely bright metallic green beetle rummaging around in the stamens of a Welsh poppy.

Oedemera nobilis feeding on pollen

This was the first, rather hasty photograph I took of the handsome beetle and followed it with a number of what I thought would be much better shots, but when I downloaded the day’s bounty I discovered all of them were unreadable, so goodness knows what happened there. Hopefully I will find more another day.

Dog Rose- Rosa canina

The open patch of ground just inside the site boundary is lovely now, lush with a mix of tall meadow grasses swaying gently in the day’s light breeze and catching the sunlight. Dog rose shrubs are in glorious full bloom.

A lush display of tall meadow grasses

In a sunny patch of shorter turf where there was Red Clover and Bird’s-foot Trefoil growing I stopped to watch Common Blue and Brown Argus butterflies and bumblebees. Both species of butterfly are territorial despite their tiny size and were chasing off anything and everything that dared enter their airspace.

A Common Blue male taking off from Bird’s-foot Trefoil

Brown Argus

Common Carder Bee on red clover

There’s not much to see in the woodland here, the trees, including a good number of yews grow closely together, shutting out much of the sunlight, so it is very dark and quiet in there. I did spot a young Wren demanding attention from a parent though, calling loudly and flapping its wings wildly to try to maintain its balance on a fence post. It is only a short downhill walk to take before reaching the open area of Limestone Pavement. It’s a little more overgrown now than the last time I saw it, with quite a few tree saplings and brambles getting a foothold. I know little or nothing about how you would go about maintaining a limestone pavement though, so have no idea what would be removed, or when, but there are some lovely wildflowers here currently and it would be a shame if they were smothered by brambles.

The main expanse of Limestone Pavement

Common Rockrose

There is quite a bit of rockrose, interspersed with salad burnet with its curious flowerheads.

Salad Burnet– Sanguisorba minor is a low-growing herb of chalk and limestone grasslands which produces rounded, reddish flower heads from May to September. The leaves of Salad Burnet comprise up to 12 pairs of rounded, toothed leaflets, and form a rosette at the base of the flower stem. The rounded flower heads are reddish and speckled.

Salad Burnet flower

The leaves are famous for smelling of cucumber if crushed or walked upon, and this plant lives up to its name as a popular addition to salads and summer drinks.

The leaves of Salad Burnet comprise up to 12 pairs of rounded, toothed leaflets, and form a rosette at the base of the flower stem.

I try not to plan my outings too much, preferring to take things as they come at the time, but I was hoping to find one of this site’s ‘special’ plants in flower today. Dropwort-filipendula vulgaris is a clumsy (pardon the pun) name for a very elegant and rather ‘frothy’ plant. I found a couple of stems at the end of their flowering late last summer, but hoped to find more today. I was pleased then to find the first ones, which I recognised by the pretty fern-like leaves, but alas the flowers were still tightly budded. Once I had spotted one I found more, but all were tightly closed.

Dropwort in bud

Again there was compensation for not finding what I was hoping for; this time it was Bloody Cranesbill –Geranium Sanguinem, which is not at all a common plant and in Wales restricted to a few limestone-rich coastal areas. It grows also on the Great Orme, a few miles away in Llandudno and I have also seen it on Llanddwyn Island in Anglesey.

Bloody Cranesbill-Geranium sanguinem growing in a ‘gryke’ of the limestone pavement

There are many colour variations of this plant species, but it takes the ‘Bloody’ part of its name from the blood-red sepals that remain after the petals have fallen.

Broad-leaved Willowherb, one of the more ‘ordinary’ wildflowers to be found here

Wood Avens

Leaving this main area of the limestone pavement and continuing downhill through a narrow belt of woodland you emerge into an open grassy area that is so pretty I was half-expecting Bambi and friends to pop out. There were a few Purple Spotted Orchids here, very nearly finished, an impressive group of Bloody Cranesbill and more Rockroses.

At the far end of this small woodland glade is another smaller section of pavement, which is where I found the Dropwort last year. There was no sign of the plant in the exact same place, but I did spot a couple of little pale pink orchids. Once again, as I got my eye in, I found more of them, most not quite fully out yet.

Heath-spotted Orchid- Dactylorhiza maculata

I sat in the sunshine on the edge of the rocky pavement for a while, admiring the view across to Penrhyn Bay and watching more Small Heath butterflies fluttering over the stony ground where they settled to bask occasionally. I realised then that the reason I was finding it difficult to spot them earlier was because they settle very low to the ground, almost horizontal to it. As I got up to leave one fluttered along the grass in front of me, settling some metres ahead, so I took a series of photographs as I inched towards it, each one a little closer. It allowed me to get very close before flying off from here.

Small Heath – Coenonympha pamphilus

Quite unexpectedly then, just a short distance away from the butterfly I glanced up to see the flower I was hoping for in peachy pink and creamy white frothy glory. A Dropwort in almost full glorious bloom. What a treat.

Dropwort in full peaches and cream frothy glory

Dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris), also known as Fern-leaf Dropwort, is a perennial herb of the family Rosaceae and closely related to Meadowsweet. It is found in dry pastures across much of Europe and central and northern Asia, preferring full sun to partial shade and is more tolerant of dry conditions than most other members of its genus.

It has finely-cut, radical leaves, fern-like in appearance, and an erect stem 20–50 centimetres (8–20 in) tall. The tiny creamy white flowers appear in dense clusters from late spring to mid summer. The crushed leaves and roots have a scent of oil of wintergreen (Methyl salicylate).

A hill not too far – part 2

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, butterflies, Limestone Pavement, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

common blue, dropwort, filipendula vulgaris, juniper, limestone pavement, Meadow Brown, scabious, scarlet pimpernel, small tortoiseshell, taxus baccata, wildflowers and insects, yew

Limestone Pavement

Limestone pavement is very scarce and only covers 2600ha in Britain, but it is a habitat with a high geological interest. The following is an extract from the Limestone Pavement Conservation website: http://www.limestone-pavements.org.uk/geology.html which explains their formation much better than I could, so I am quoting it here:

“The formation of limestone pavements in the UK and Ireland began with the scouring of the limestone by glaciers during the last ice age. The weight of the ice removed the soil that lay over the limestone, and also fractured the limestone along existing horizontal surfaces of weakness known as bedding planes. Fractured rocks were stripped away leaving level platforms of limestone on which a thick layer of boulder clay (glacial till) was deposited as the glaciers retreated. Wind blown material was then deposited on top of the boulder clay. This external material is particularly important for soil formation, as limestone does not weather down into soil which would mean if there had been no glacial deposits, there would have been no soil development. From the flat limestone surfaces, the characteristic features of limestone pavement have been formed by water in the glacially deposited soil exploiting cracks and fissures in the rock.”

Part of the limestone pavement at Bryn Pydew (my photograph)

On the website linked above there is a lot more information, including a photograph taken here, labelled ‘Sheltered wooded pavement’. under the heading ‘flora’.

I had a potter around the rocky pavement and found a few little plants still flowering, but it is a bit late in the season for most species of the wildflowers that could potentially be found here to be blooming, so I will have to come back in the spring for another look.

Scarlet Pimpernel – Anagallis arvensis

Below the pavement, loose gravelly ground slopes away and merges into a grassy area. Following recent rainfall shallow streams of run-off water were trickling down, making the bare ground muddy and the grassy area quite marshy, so any plants here would be well watered. There were some pretty groups of scabious, (not sure which species) flowering here, that were proving of great interest to a variety of insects including several species of hoverfly and a few butterflies.

Scabious is still flowering strongly

Common Blue (f)-Polyommatus icarus

A Common Drone Fly-Eristalis tenax- on scabious giving a better view of the pretty flower

Meadow Brown

During the time I was here I had the whole place to myself and as I was muddling around I suddenly realised that there were sizeable chunks of time when there was absolute peace and quiet. Not a single sound from a bird, a car, a plane, an animal or a person. It was so blissful I had to sit down on a rock to better enjoy it together with the wonderful views across to the hills in front of me and Penrhyn Bay, the sea and the Little Orme beyond.

The view over the treetops to Penrhyn Bay and the Little Orme (click to enlarge)

My peaceful reverie was suddenly broken by intermittent rather muffled but quite loud voices. I thought at first that it must be people that had arrived to picnic somewhere close by as the level of the sound didn’t change as it would had they been walking around. Then the penny dropped; what I was hearing was the disembodied commentary from the ‘fun dog show’ just down the road in the village hall. It was a breezy afternoon too which meant the instructions being delivered, amplified by a PA system being used none too expertly, were probably clearer to me half a mile away than they were to the dog owners. It amused me to picture the scenes from the little village hall and hoped dogs and owners really were having fun.

There are some interesting trees and shrubs growing around the perimeter of the pavement area, including two of our three British native conifers, juniper and yew. Juniper is now a threatened plant species in Britain. Plantlife have warned that it is in serious trouble in Britain and with some southern counties having lost 70 per cent of their populations, the species is facing extinction across lowland England within 50 years. The loss of juniper would represent more than the loss of a single species – it supports more than 40 species of insect and fungus that cannot survive without it.

Juniper shrub

Junipers have been part of Britain’s landscape for thousands of years, and were one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last Ice Age. Their aromatic berries are used in cooking and medicine, and are the key ingredient of gin.

I have mentioned already that there were yew trees growing in the woodland, but this one out in the open was easier to photograph.

Yew-taxus baccata

Yew–Taxus baccata; Welsh: Ywen

Native to Britain and Ireland, the evergreen coniferous yew tree tolerates a wide range of conditions including the dense shading of woodland. It often grows singularly in woods but in groves elsewhere. It has long been planted in parks, gardens and has a long association with churchyards.

The leaves are highly toxic, as too is the seed inside the red berries owing to the presence of toxicantin and consuming as little as 50 to 100 grams of chopped leaves would be fatal to an adult.

Hart’s Tongue Fern – Asplenium scolopendrium.The sori (spore) pattern is reminiscent of a centipede’s legs, and scolopendrium is Latin for “centipede”.

Heading back across the limestone pavement I stopped to photograph a female Common Darter dragonfly that was basking in a sunny spot.

Common Darter (female) on limestone pavement

The information board describes the marked route around the reserve as ‘circular’, so I walked around the woodland edge to see if that meant there was another track to walk back on. As I was looking I spotted a plant with white flowers tucked in amongst some oak seedlings and long grass stems.

Dropwort flower tucked in between oak seedlings. This is a late-flowering stem, there are others around it that are going to seed.

The plant is Dropwort – Filipendula vulgaris, and is related to Meadowsweet (it is in the same Genus). The flowers are larger than those of Meadowsweet, and the plant is much shorter, typically less than half the size. Dropwort also prefers a chalky or limestone grassland whereas Meadowsweet likes to grow on damp ground or near water. This was a late-flowering stem, its main flowering time being June-August, so I was lucky to find it. There were other stems close by going to seed, but I doubt I would have noticed them it the flowers hadn’t caught my eye.

This Dropwort is not a relation to Water Dropworts which are mostly extremely poisonous to people, and in this instance the name of the plant does not mean that if it is eaten they will ‘drop down’; it refers to the large pea-sized drop-like tubers on its roots. However, the leaves and roots do contain Methyl Salicylate, which serves to attract beneficial insects but to kill any that dare try to eat it, as it is toxic. Due to the presence of the chemical, if the leaves or root are crushed they do smell faintly of oil of Wintergreen.

Dropwort – Filipendula vulgaris

I walked back through the woods and back out into the sunshine. There were a number of little dragonflies flitting about on the woodland edge, again Common Darters. Amongst them a pretty red adult male that obliging ‘perched’ for just long enough for me to photograph him.

Common Darter male

The flowery bit of land I described in the first part of this post was still busy with insects, but now they were joined by butterflies, a Meadow Brown, Large White, a couple of Small Tortoishells and an absolutely gorgeous Peacock.

Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on red valerian

Small Tortoishell – Aglais urticae

Peacock-iInachis io

The beautifully textured underside of the Peacock

A hill not too far – part 1

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Pydew, fungi, hoverflies, Nature, nature of woodlands, nature photography, woodlands

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

buff-tailed bumblebee, common darter, common green grasshopper, eristalis, hoverflies, inula conyza, leucozona lucorum, ploughman's spikenard, tar spot fungus, traveller's joy

The first day of September was gloriously sunny and warm in the way that only our late summer days can be. In preparation for just such a day I had done a bit of research into other nature reserves that may be nearby and was surprised to discover there is indeed such a one, almost on our doorstep on another landmark hill just beyond Bryn Euryn, called Bryn Pydew. The land is leased and managed by the North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT), and just had to be explored not only because of its proximity, but also because it has within in it an area of Limestone Pavement that I have been keen to add to my round of habitats to visit.

To quote the Bryn Pydw entry on the First Nature website:

Bryn Pydew SSSI; RIGS site : “This reserve lies on carboniferous limestone and has woodland, grassland, limestone pavement and two disused quarries providing a wide variety of habitats.”

I could hardly believe it was so close by and I had never heard of it, but when I set off to find it, following the directions on the website, I did have some problems finding the ‘entrance’ to the reserve. (I must get myself an ordnance survey map and re-learn to use grid references !) I knew I was on the Bryn, it’s huge, so hard to miss, and drove up, down around and along a few lanes in the indicated direction, then through the village of Bryn Pydew and back again, finally stopping to ask for directions from a lady carrying a basket heading for the village hall. She didn’t really know either, but suggested it might be the “flat bit further on where they have been digging”. It was clear that there was little room for parking on the lane, so I asked if I should park outside the hall and walk, she said “Oh no, please don’t, we have a fun Dog Show here this afternoon, so we need all the parking space we have for that.” Not wishing to upset anyone or their dog, I drove a bit further and duly came to said ‘flat bit’ at the side of the lane, pulled onto it and got out of the car.

Woodland edge

It seemed likely that the reserve was in the general area as I was now looking at woodland to one side on the lower slope of the hill, then across the lane, a grassy slope with some scrubby vegetation leading to the summit of the Bryn. Next to where I had parked there was a mound of earth and stones, becoming vegetated with grass, with the addition of clumps of vervain, verbascum and other wild plants, which made me think this may have been a bit of a dumping ground for the village gardeners. Behind this ‘tump’ there was a ‘path’ cobbled with small pieces of limestone between it and the woodland edge, bordered on either side with wildflowers, predominantly ragwort, but also marsh hemp, cat’s ear, traveller’s joy (wild clematis), hogweed etc.

A beautiful fresh ‘Sun Fly’, also known as ‘The Footballer’ – Helophilus pendulus

The sheltered spot was buzzing with hoverflies, bees and bumblebees and even a few butterflies. Most of the hoverflies were of the larger eristalis species, some of which I have already featured photographs of in recent posts, but there were others too.

Eristalis interruptus on ragwort

Eristalis on Hemp Agrimony

The most familiar of hoverflies, the exquisite little Marmalade Fly – Episyrphus balteatus

I was also an attractive hoverfly, Leucozona lucorum, which is a new one for my collection of photographs.

Leucozona lucorum. There is a similar-looking insect – Volucella pellucens which is much shinier and does not have the orange-yellow scutellum (the triangular patch at the base of the thorax)

Buff-tailed Bumblebee- Bombus terrestris on Traveller’s Joy-Clematis vitalba

Welsh Poppy with small flies

I was really pleased to find Ploughman’s Spikenard growing here. It is a plant quite unprepossessing in its appearance, looking a bit like a giant groundsel or ragwort that is going to seed, so may be easily overlooked, but it is another of my favourite type of plant, one with a history of traditional use as a medicinal herb and that has some great alternative common names; Cinnamon-root, Great Fleabane, Horseheal and Lady’s-gloves.

Ploughman’s Spikenard – Inula Conyza (the seeds on the leaves are from nearby thistles)

Honeybee on Ploughman’s Spikenard

It was really peaceful here, so I sat down on the ground for a while to enjoy the sunshine and properly take notice of what was around me. I love to do that sometimes, to just sit still and lose myself in the moment, and feel connected to the real world. Stillness often brings other rewards too, things I may have missed if I’d been standing and wandering around. A dragonfly came to settle close by on the warm stones, as did a grasshopper and there were birds about too, a Robin came out of the woods to hop around close by and so did a Dunnock.

Common Darter Dragonfly- Sympetrum striolatum (immature male)

Common Green Grasshopper-Omocestus viridulus

A fresh-plumaged Dunnock spied through tall grass

Into the woods

Still not sure of where I was I decided to walk towards the woods to see if there may be a track I could walk on. Lo and behold as I walked towards the trees, set just inside the edge of the woodland was the information board for the reserve. It looks quite faded so has clearly been there for some years, so maybe it was originally more visible from the lane?

Information board about the Bryn Pydew Reserve- click to enlarge

There is a track, way-marked with red marks on some of the tree trunks.

Woodland trail, Bryn Pydew

The trees, mostly silver birch, as, some oak, sycamore and unusually a good many yew grow closely together, so it was quite dark and shady in there with occasional shafts of sunlight breaking through the leaf canopy. Most of the sycamore leaves I could see were sprinkled wit large black spots, the result of an infection of Tar Spot fungus.

Tar spot is a fungal disease characterised by raised, black spots on leaves, caused by the fungus Rhytisma acerinum. The tar-like spot is a fruiting structure of the fungus that survives the winter on fallen leaves. In the spring mature spores of the fungus, which have a sticky coating, are released and blown by wind to newly emerging leaves.

The undersides of the leaves appear cupped directly beneath the tar spots. This is a much-enlarged image of a tiny snail and another minute insect.

In a clearing in the woodland where there was a little more light I photographed Hart’s Tongue fern growing amongst ivy on an old stone wall and Lady Fern.

Hart’s Tongue Fern and ivy on an old stone wall

Lady Fern

On the other side of the wall where shrubby plants have colonised the clearing I watched five Speckled Wood butterflies chase one another around in the sun-dapples space. These are very territorial little butterflies that will tackle anything that tries to invade its territory; today each time one settled on a leaf to bask it was dive-bombed by another, so it took a while to get an image. It was good watching them though, this is the most I have seen together in one place for a long while and judging by their fresh appearance, I would say they were newly-emerged.