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Tag Archives: ash tree

Summer along a Welsh Woodland Trail

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by theresagreen in British hoverflies, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, bumblebees, butterflies, Butterflies of Wales, hoverflies, Insects, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, wildflowers, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

ash tree, episyrphus balteatus, eristalis pertinax, flesh-eating fly, hedge woundwort, helophilus pendulus, hypericum montanum, large pied hoverfly, marmalade fly, Pale St John's Wort, sarcophoga carnaria, Stinking Iris-Iris foetidissima, syrphus ribesii, tapered drone fly, volucella zonaria, wild strawberry fruit, woodland flowers

Variable summer weather is perhaps more the norm here in North Wales than in some other parts of the UK, although we still feel hard done to when yet another day dawns doomed to be overcast. There are many compensations though, one of which is that when the odd sunny, or partially sunny day occurs, the insects come out in force in search of sustenance. I photographed all of the following along Bryn Euryn’s Woodland Trail during a fleeting sunny spell a couple of weeks ago.

The woodland trail

The shady woodland trail

On the edge of the trail a substantial bramble was still flowering and literally buzzing with insects, mostly hoverflies and bees. There were two butterflies, a Red Admiral and a Comma that were flying around rather frantically, both of which briefly (and separately) landed on my arm. Poor things were clearly overcome by the presence of both sun and nectar. I would have liked a more conventional shot of the Comma, this being the first I’d seen here this year, but it was taunting me from high over my head so this was my best view. I rather like it and it’s clear from the outline that it is a Comma.

The Comma insisted on playing hide and seek

The Comma insisted on playing hide and seek

The hoverflies were very active, not pausing for long but these are the ones I could get to fairly easily:

Volucella pellucens-Pellucid fly is the largest fly in Great Britain

Volucella pellucens- sometimes called the Pellucid fly, this is the largest fly of Great Britain

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-hvfly-Volucella pellucens (7)

A gorgeous Volucella zonaria

A gorgeous Volucella zonaria – my first sighting here

A Tapered drone fly-eristalis pertinax grooming its legs

A Tapered drone fly – Eristalis pertinax

Eristalis nemorum (interruptus)

Eristalis nemorum (interruptus)

A more distant view of a Helophilus pendulus

A more distant view of a Helophilus pendulus

A Syrphus sp hoverfly-Syrphus ribesii - one of the most common species

A Syrphus sp hoverfly-Syrphus ribesii – one of the most commonly seen species

A tiny Marmalade fly-Episyrphus balteatus, probably our most common hoverfly

A tiny Marmalade fly-Episyrphus balteatus, probably our most common hoverfly

There were bees too, including lots of tiny red-tailed and buff-tailed worker bumblebees that were way too quick for me to focus on.

Honey bee

Honey bee

A less charming insect to many, I find the Flesh-eating fly-Sarcophaga carnaria rather attractive to look at. I think the white feet complete the look, makes it look rather dapper.

Flesh-eating fly-Sarcophoga carnaria

Flesh-eating fly-Sarcophoga carnaria

The trees are still green and fresh-looking thanks to the rain and cooler weather, although those in the top right of the next picture are looking quite lacy.

150712TG-Bryn Euryn-looking up into an ash tree

Looking up into an Ash tree

Continuing along the trail I hear a few birds letting the world know they are still about, Chiffchaff song bursts were fairly frequent, I heard Wrens and the contact calls of Blue Tits and plenty of corvid cawings. I found this feather too, maybe once belonging to a Magpie, it gleamed shades of almost peacock-blue in the dappled sunlight.

A corvid feather

A corvid feather

Honeysuckle is in flower now on the trail’s  edge and I couldn’t resist stopping to inhale its clean, fresh fragrance.

Lovely scented honeysuckle

Lovely scented honeysuckle

There is purple Hedge woundwort too, which has an earthy pungent, nettle-like scent.

Pungently scented Hedge Woundwort

Pungently scented Hedge Woundwort

Foxgloves are almost over-flowering reduced to the tips of the long bent-over  stems

Foxgloves are almost over-flowering reduced to the tips of the long bent-over stems

Wood sage-Teucrium scorodonia

Wood sage-Teucrium scorodonia

And a St John’s Wort I’d not spotted before, which I think is hypericum montanum, but happy to be corrected as always.

Pale St John's Wort-Hypericum montanum

Pale St John’s Wort-Hypericum montanum

A rather unusual plant grows here in the shady woodland, delightfully named the Stinking Iris and sometimes the ‘Roast-beef Plant’, both names allude to the sweetly acrid smell, like ‘high’ meat. This is one of just two Iris species native to the UK; the other is the Yellow Flag Iris.

The charmingly-named Stinking Iris-Iris foetidissima

The delightfully-named Stinking Iris-Iris foetidissima

Closer look at an Iris flower

Closer look at an Iris flower which is a greyish-mauve tinged with a brownish-pink

The much more common Nipplewort

The much more common Nipplewort-Lapsana communis

A Nipplewort leaf showing the path of a leaf-miner

A Nipplewort leaf showing the path of a leaf-miner

I picked a couple of ripe wild wild strawberries, trying not to think about the fly sitting on a leaf above them and their proximity to the path along which there is a regular procession of loose dogs….. They were delicious, regardless.

Sweet-tasting Wild Strawberries

Sweet-tasting Wild Strawberries

Turned off and took the steps up to Adder’s Field

Steps leading up to the meadow

Steps leading up to the meadow

more treats were in store there but there’s far too much to cram into one post, so will be continued….

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Spring on the Bryn

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, hoverflies, Insects, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature of woodlands, tree folklore

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

ash tree, Bee-fly, chequered hoverfly, common field speedwell, cowslip, dog mercury, eupeodes latifasciatus, garlic mustard, hart's tongue fern, ivy-leaved speedwell, oak tree, wood anemone, wood sorrel

Recent outings have been ambles rather than rambles as I’m getting back to fit after being laid low for a few weeks by some kind of virus, which also accounts for the recent absence from blogging. I’ve found it most frustrating, especially at this time of year too when there’s so much going on. But I’m keen to catch up and already have a lot to share, so here’s a mostly-pictorial view of Bryn Euryn as I saw it on two beautiful sunny-day ambles in the last week of April.

There are a lot of Ash trees on the Bryn, thankfully all of which appear to be healthy at the present time and they seem to have had an exceptional amount of flowers this year. The flowers start off a dark pinkish-purple but now most of them are over now and the clusters are mostly green.

Ash tree flowers are almost over

Ash tree flowers are almost over

Some trees have produced so many flowers that now the clusters are green, from a distance it gives the illusion that they are in leaf.

Spent flower clusters give ash trees the illusion of being in leaf

Spent flower clusters give ash trees the illusion of being in leaf

Looking more closely at the tree in the photo above, there are a few  leaves already appearing.

New ash leaves opening

New ash leaves opening

Naturally, once I had seen the ash leaves I had then to check out the oaks to guage if we are in for a ‘splash or  a soak’ this summer. On the day I took the photo of the ash the oaks were all in tight bud.

21/4/15- Oak leaves in tight bud

21/4/15- Oak leaves in tight bud

But three sunny days later I was amazed to see that leaves had begun to open and not only that, insects had already moved in.

24/4/15-New oak leaves with insects

24/4/15-New oak leaves with insects

For anyone that has no idea what that last bit was about, a traditional English way of predicting whether the summer will be wet or dry was based on whether the oak or the ash trees opened their leaves first.

“When the oak is before the ash, then you will only get a splash; when the ash is before the oak, then you may expect a soak “

So things appear to be fairly even in the rainfall prediction stakes so far.

Robin singing from high in an ash tree

Robin singing from high in an ash tree

It was a perfect spring day, the sun was shining the sky was blue and a host of birds were singing. Along the quarry field edge the vegetation is growing up quickly although there’s not much flowering yet. Celandines are beginning to fade and some dandelions have already set seed.

Vegetation on woodland edge-celandines, nettles & arum

Vegetation on woodland edge-Lesser Celandines, nettles & arum

Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies-Arum maculatum

Cuckoo Pint or Lords and Ladies-Arum maculatum

There was a single male Orange Tip butterfly racing along at their normal break-neck speed and one female Small White that obligingly settled on a bramble.

Small White (f) on bramble leaf

Small White (f) on bramble leaf

150421TGNW-BE1-Chequered Hoverfly(m) -Melanstoma scalare

Tiny male Chequered Hoverfly-Melanstoma scalare (enlarged)

I was quite surprised to see a good number of hoverflies about, all looking shiny and fresh, so I assume they were newly-emerged.

Hoverfly-Eupeodes latifasciatus

I think this is Eupeodes latifasciatus

As I was checking out a splash of colour that turned out to be from this escaped garden plant, I was happy to see this little bee-fly arrive to take its nectar. One of my favourite insects, they look cute and furry but are classified under the general heading of ‘robber-flies’ and their larvae live as parasitoids in the nests of mining bees.

An escaped garden plant attracting a bee-fly

An escaped garden plant attracting a bee-fly

There are two species of pretty blue speedwell flowering here, one is the familiar Common Field Speedwell

Common Field Speedwell- Veronica persica

Common Field Speedwell- Veronica persica

and the other is the even tinier-flowered Ivy-leaved Speedwell.

Ivy-leaved speedwell-Veronica hederifolia

Ivy-leaved speedwell-Veronica hederifolia

You could easily overlook this rather sprawling untidy plant, and you’d probably pull it out of your garden as a ‘weed’, but as with all speedwells, on closer inspection its tiny flowers are really pretty.

Close-up of flower of ivy-leaved speedwell

Close-up of flower and leaves of Ivy-leaved Speedwell

In the woods the tree canopy is still open but there are small new leaves on some trees.

24/4/15-Tree canopy still open

24/4/15-Tree canopy still open – new beech leaves in foreground

Wood anemones are still flowering

Wood anemone-Anemone nemorosa

Wood anemone-Anemone nemorosa

and there was one patch of Wood Sorrel.

Wood Sorrel-Oxalis acetosella

Wood Sorrel-Oxalis acetosella

Harts Tongue fern fronds unfurling

Harts Tongue fern fronds unfurling

Garlic Mustard is beginning to flower- if you never have, try crushing a leaf they really do smell of garlic…

Garlic Mustard - Alliaria petiolata

Garlic Mustard – Alliaria petiolata

and another plant that doesn’t smell too pleasant, Dog Mercury, is also displaying its spikes of rather insignificant small pale green, petalless flowers.

Dog Mercury - Mercurialis perennis

Dog Mercury – Mercurialis perennis

There are still ivy berries on some plants, although those left are probably still there because they are difficult for their chief consumers, blackbirds and bulky old wood pigeons to reach.

Ivy berries

Ivy berries

In the open wildflower meadow cowslips are blooming. I love their graceful fragrant flowers and the sight of them always takes me back to childhood when it was still OK to pick bunches of them and we used them as part of the floral decorations for the school May Day celebrations.

Cowslip-Primula veris

Cowslip-Primula veris

Hawthorn is now green with fresh leaves.

Fresh hawthorn leaves

Fresh hawthorn leaves

Part 2 to follow ….

 

 

 

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Little Orme in early June

14 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by theresagreen in Little Orme, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Rhiwledyn Nature Reserve, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

alexanders, ash tree, pink wildflowers, robin's pincushion gall wasp, sea campion, walk on the Little Orme, white wildflowers, wild thyme, wildflowers of the Little Orme

I made Wild Cabbages the main floral event of my recent walk on the Little Orme, giving them a post of their own, simply because they are not an everyday plant and because the number of plants there are and the profusion of their flowers this year would have made them difficult to miss. But of course there was much more to see there.

June 4th

As late spring slips into early summer there is a blending of fading and fresh flowers and foliage. My first glimpse of the fresh was a lovely clump, (an inelegant word to use to describe such delicate flowers), of Greater Stitchwort. They were tucked tightly against a tangle of bramble, using it to support their rather weak, brittle stems.

Greater Stitchwort-Stellaria holostea

Greater Stitchwort-Stellaria holostea

On the edge of the cliff there is a smattering of Thrift and some Sea Campion, both with fading flowers. I searched for a while to find Thrift that still looked fairly fresh, but find being able to see the seeds forming within the ‘bladders’ of the Sea Campion interesting.

Thrift and Sea Campion on a scree slope at the bottom of a cliff wall

Thrift and Sea Campion on a scree slope at the bottom of a cliff wall

Thrift-Armeria maritima

Thrift-Armeria maritima

A fairly fresh flower of Sea Campion-Silene vulgaris ssp. maritima

A fairly fresh flower of Sea Campion-Silene vulgaris ssp. maritima

Sea Campion-Silene vulgaris ssp. maritima-seed developing

Sea Campion-Silene vulgaris ssp. maritima-seed developing

The most prolific wildflower here currently is Bird’s Foot Trefoil, which will carry on throughout the summer, providing nourishment for a whole host of fauna; a veritable live food manufacturing plant that looks beautiful too. I sat on a rock near this spot gazing at the view, contemplating life and enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon sun.

What could be prettier? Golden Bird's-foot Trefoil against a background of blue sea and sky

What could be prettier? Golden Bird’s-foot Trefoil against a background of blue sea and sky

There was a lot of Cormorant traffic travelling to and fro the tip of the headland, some in small groups, others alone. There are a large number of them here and their outlines can often be seen against the sky, the birds perched at regular intervals down the rock descending to the sea.

Turning back from the cliff I thought I might walk up the steep grass incline to the top of the hill, but I got halfway up and decided it might be a bit late in the day for rambling around up there, so stopped to take a photograph and walked down again.

Ash tree with a view of Rhos-on-Sea and beyond

Ash tree with a view across Penrhyn Bay to Rhos-on-Sea and Colwyn bay beyond

Upholding my promise to myself to pay more attention to Ash trees I had already looked at a couple of small ones before taking this photograph. All, including this one, were less fully-leaved than those inland and all had leaves that were brown and shrivelled around their edges. I was alarmed when I first noticed that, but don’t think it’s anything more sinister than the leaves being ‘burned’ by the very cold and salt-laden winds they have been subjected to this whilst young and tender. I hope that’s all it is, there are a lot of Ash trees on the site of the Little Orme and their loss would be significant.

A smaller, younger Ash tree

A smaller, younger Ash tree had sparse foliage and ‘burnt’ leaves

I walked back following the pathway at the base of  the towering rock face, leaving the surfaced track to search the grass at its side for any smaller, less showy wildflowers. There was plenty more Bird’s-foot Trefoil with a few little bumblebees rushing around hunting for nectar and little patches of Wild Thyme, just beginning to open. There were quite a few little flowers, yellow with pink-flushed buds, that looked similar to Cat’s Ear, but not quite, so more research needed there.

A small patch of newly-opened Wild Thyme

A small patch of newly-opened Wild Thyme

I carried on walking, diverting over to the big patch of cabbages to take photographs as seen in previous post, following the edge of the deeper quarried-out bit (all of the section of the Little Orme I have been describing above is flat as a result of quarrying activity). Where the edge of this meets the cliff wall the only way to continue is to scramble down a rocky slope. If you ever find yourself doing this, be careful as hundreds of pairs of feet taking this way down, or up, over the years have worn the exposed rock to a shiny smoothness that can be quite slippery, even when dry.

The area at the bottom of the slope has a completely different character, more along the lines of an urban wasteland than a coastal clifftop. It does back onto houses and there is an access path in from the residential area, so the ground was probably disturbed during the building process. It’s not a very large area and can appear a bit scruffy, but there is always something to see here. There’s lots of Valerian flowering now, but the plant that has gone a bit crazy and is threatening to dominate all, is Alexanders. According to Richard Mabey in his brilliant book ‘Weeds’, this Roman introduction to Great Britain has apparently nationally fallen from grace recently, having suddenly altered its demeanor from that of well-behaved and fondly thought-of immigrant edible wildflower, to that of a rampant weed.

Alexanders lines the pathway for several metres

Alexanders – Smyrnium olustrum ,lines the pathway for several metres

Alexanders is one of the earliest plants to put out greenery in the early spring and most of the plants here are past their best. A stately and attractive all-over yellow-green coloured plant, it was introduced here by the Romans for use as a pot-herb, having a mild celery flavour. Its culinary use continued for hundreds of years until it was replaced by cultivated celery. Perhaps this is a plant we should go back to foraging to help keep it under control rather than destroy it.

Alexanders is going to seed now, but there are still flowers

Alexanders is going to seed now, but there are still flowers

While I was prowling around the Alexanders plants I spotted a wild rose shrub in their midst and suddenly made a mental connection with a blog post from last August, which included a bit about the Robin’s Pincushion galls that appear on these plants. I mentioned in it that while the completed growth begins as bright red in colour, over the months they fade to a dark red-brown before the new adult wasps emerge in the spring and thought I’d try to find one. I remembered where the gall I photographed then was located, but thought I’d have a quick look at this one on the way to it. As luck would have it, there was a nice fat dark gall there too. As I got close with the camera, even more luck – there were a number of tiny little wasps crawling around on the gall and flying on and off, back and forth between it and rose leaves just a few centimetres away.

Dry Robin's Pincushion with little wasps on the surface

Dry Robin’s Pincushion with little wasps on the surface

I am not claiming that these are the wasps, scientific name, Diplolepsis rosae, that cause the growth of the gall to house their larvae. Having looked at other people’s images, I rather think that although the colouration is similar, the abdomens of the ones in my pictures are more elongated and tapered than those in  images of the ‘right’ one. I thought perhaps the insects were just emerging from the gall, but that also didn’t help as I learnt that the original larvae are subject to parasitism by other species of wasp and they in turn may be got at by yet another species. They may have just been seeking prey, or maybe somewhere to locate their own eggs, or even just roosting for the night. I am sure they are some species of wasp though. If anyone can help with identification I’d be delighted.

Tiny wasp from gall, resting on a nearby rose leaf

Wasp from gall, resting on a nearby rose leaf. Size increased many times, these insects were really tiny.

It was almost half-past six by the time I thought I should be getting home and the sun was beginning to sink behind the mass of the headland. It was creating a lovely glowing effect on the landscape and casting an interesting light upon a beautiful patch of buttercups that had pretty White Campion growing up through it.

130604TGNR- White Campion & Buttercups - Little Orme, North Wales

Golden yellow buttercups and white campion

Little Orme in the early evening

Little Orme in the golden early evening

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Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve

19 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, Butterflies of Wales, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales

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Tags

ash tree, Bryn Euryn Nature Reserve, common rockrose, early purple orchid, hoary rockrose, wildflowers of Bryn Euryn

27th April

I haven’t seen much of the countryside since I’ve  been here in North Wales, other than through a car window, and I was very keen to see some spring flowers and fresh greenery. I know the wildflowers in Spain will be amazing when I get back there next week, but the native British wildflowers have an altogether gentler and more subtle beauty that I love. I have been planning to make a trip to the local nature reserve on Bryn Euryn, and as I will only be in the locality for a couple more days I decided to head there this morning.

Bryn Euryn is a limestone hill rising to 131metres (365 ft) above sea level and a well-loved local landmark of Rhos-on-Sea that is now a Local Nature Reserve. Its slopes are clothed with a mixture of woodland and grassland, part of which has been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest. From its summit their are extensive panoramic views over Rhos-on-Sea and Colwyn Bay and across to the mountains of Snowdonia in the west. 

I parked in the small car park that is surrounded by trees, and as soon as I got out of the car I heard a Chiffchaff ‘singing’. I couldn’t see him,but as I tried to locate his whereabouts a Robin flew into a nearby tree and also began to sing. Moving off towards the beginning of the track that leads up to the summit of the hill I stopped to watch a Song Thrush hunting on the woodland edge where it borders a grassed area.

I soon came upon a patch of bluebells growing alongside some wild garlic whose flowers are almost finished. There were a few wood anemones still flowering, but they too are all but over; wild strawberry plants were flowering along a length of the path edge in dry shade, they have a long flowering period beginning in April and continuing until October, with fruits appearing throughout the summer. It was lovely walking in the dappled shade of the woodland, listening to the birds singing and coming across flowers that gave me the opportunity to make a stop on the fairly steep upward climb. A special find was a sunlit Early Spotted Orchid growing beneath the trees. The presence of this delightful bloom, together with that of bluebells and wood anemones is a sign of an ‘old wood’,  indicating that this area has never been anything other than woodland.

Purple Spotted Orchid

Dog Violet

There was a pretty patch of little blue/purple dog violets and the surprise of a Cowslip plant on a steep bank; this one must have strayed from the grassy downland on the other side of the hill; the more usual habitat of Cowslips.

Cowslip

Rock Rose

At the top of the hill you emerge from the woodland onto a surprisingly large expanse of open grassy heathland. There were large patches of yellow flowers growing here, taking a closer look I saw there were of two separate species; I recognised rock rose, but was unfamiliar with the other. Looking it up when I got home I realised it was Hoary Rockrose, one of the plants named on the information board in the car park that is apparently very scarce in the British Isles.

Hoary Rockrose – Helianthemum canum

The views from the top here are truly spectacular, extending from the Little Orme around and across Rhos-on-Sea and Colwyn Bay with the mountains of Snowdonia to the west. The only downside, at least from this side of the hilltop, was the traffic noise arising from the busy A55.

A panoramic view of Rhos-on-Sea and Colwyn Bay

View from Bryn Euryn summit – mountains of Snowdonia on far horizon

View across summit of Bryn Euryn to Conwy Estuary and beyond to Snowdonia

Germander Speedwell

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Turning around I walked across to the other side of the summit, passing through a shrubby area, the woodland edge, where there are shrubs and small trees growing. Here, Hawthorn is in full bloom and I stopped to watch a furry bumblebee as she burrowed into the leafy debris on the ground beneath.

Hawthorn, or May blossom

I discovered another early purple orchid plant here, this one had an earlier, or perhaps even last year’s, dried flower spike attached.

I reached the true summit of the hill, which has a concrete trig point on it that is part of the nationwide network built by the Ordnance survey to create their maps of the UK in the old days before computers.There is also a board depicting how the ancient hill fort may have looked. I was very surprised to come across an extensive patch of orchids here, I roughly counted them and estimated at least 100 flowers.

Summit of Bryn Euryn with Trig point & mass of purple spotted orchids in the foreground

The Fort

The summit of Bryn Euryn was once occupied by a small but strong fortification. This may have been the ‘Bear’s Den’ mentioned by Gidas the Wise and thought to have been a stronghold of Cynlas the ‘Red Butcher’, king in Rhos around the middle of the sixth century. Only the faint traces of the limestone rampart’s foundations are  visible today, protruding through the turf and ringing the summit of the hill, to remind us of its former importance.

It was much quieter and more peaceful on this side of the hill and I sat for a while enjoying the sunshine and the view out to sea and across to the Little Orme.  Two Red Admiral butterflies were flying around the nearby shrubbery, one kept attempting to sun itself on a bramble leaf, the other kept disturbing it, the basking one chased after its disturber then returned to the same spot etc. etc. It took a lot of patience to get the photograph.

Red Admiral basking on new bramble leaf

Speckled Wood on a leaf on the ground

Even trickier to photograph was this Speckled Wood. Once again there were two of the insects chasing one another – these little butterflies are especially territorial, but I wanted to get a photograph as they were much paler in colour than the ones I had been seeing in the garden. That made getting the photograph even harder, as when they did land it was on dried leaves and they were so well camouflaged I couldn’t find them through the lens.

There are some beautiful trees growing here, including Ash, whose leaves are quite well grown now.

new ash leaves

They brought to mind the old country rhyme about their predicting the forthcoming summer weather:-

“Ash before oak, look for a soak, oak before ash, look for a splash”

I had a quick look at a neighbouring oak and would say they were pretty much on a level, so hopefully that means some rain, but not too much.

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‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

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