Wildlife Blog by Ron Allen – 30 April 2024
Eyelashes, cauliflower, goldilocks, woodland flowers, birds, mammals and more.
April has been another cold, wet and windy month. However, a few bright spells and a real spring day at the very end of the month brought out some wildlife.
I took my youngest granddaughter out looking for fungi in the garden and found these small red discs (about 5mm across) on a dead log. I did not think much of them apart from the colour until I processed the images and found them to be Eyelash Cup Fungi (images 1 and 2). Look carefully and you can see the eyelashes.
A dead hazel stem produced the first cauliflower of the year. In reality, the emerging stage of the strange False Puffball and which is neither animal, plant, nor fungus but a Slime mould. Mostly living as free moving amoebae-like cells feeding on fungi and bacteria in dead wood. Then, for some reason each spring, they all emerge (often out of old beetle holes), collect together in one mini-cauliflower like jelly mass (image 3) and, over a few days, form an outer hard skin within which fungal-like spores develop (image 4) and from which the next generation of amoebae develop.
Spring is a time for early flowers, and Mary found these Goldilocks Buttercups at the end of our garden images 5 and 6). I read that goldilocks buttercups are all female and their seeds produce clones of the parent plant. This means that the have no need for insect pollination and no need for complex arrangements of petals and a careful look shows that the number and size of petals is reduced, and some flowers have no petals at all.
1 Eyelash cup fungus in close up, they are only about 5-6mm across.
2 A circular eyelash cup fungus.
3 The ‘cauliflower’ emergences stage of the False Puffball slime mould.
4 The spore stage of the False Puffball slime mould.
5 Goldilocks buttercup with reduced petals.
6 Goldilocks buttercup with a single petal.
A stroll along the public footpath through Furzefield Copse revealed many ancient woodland vascular plants, plants indicative of woodland antiquity. Not that the copse is privately owned and accessed along the public footpath. Prominent were the arching flowers of the native Bluebell (image 7) clusters of Wood Anemones (image 8) mostly going over, the strange tiny green flowers of Moschatel (image 9) also known as Town Hall Clock because of the arrangement of the flower heads. Also, the strange golden yellow flowers of Yellow Archangel, swathes of Common Dog-violets (image 10), upright stems of dark blue-violet Bugle, tall green Wood Spurge, Wood Sanicle, and bright spikes of Early Purple Orchid (image 11).
While walking the path, a male Orange-tip butterfly flew back and forth, resting from time to time on hazel twigs (images 12 and 13). Females lack the orange colouring.
7 Arching flower of the native bluebill in Furzefield Copse.
8 Wood anemone in Furzefield Copse.
9 The ‘town hall clock’ flower of Moschatel in Furzefield Copse.
10 Swathes of dog violets can be seen along the path in Furzefield Copse.
11Early purple orchid occurs in abundance in Furzefield Copse.
12 Mottled underside of the orange-tip butterfly.
Spells of warm weather bring out the reptiles with Slow-worms and Grass Snakes (image 14) warming their bodies under our wildlife refugia tins (pieces of corrugated iron that warm up in the sun).
We recently saw a Barn Owl quartering across the village green at dusk, and by day of course are Red Kites (image 15) and Buzzards, although we have not seen a Kestrel this April.
The end of April was Mammal Week. Our walks along the farm footpaths reveal Roe Deer (image 16) and Mary is good at spotting Brown Hare resting and ears up across the cultivated and cropped arable fields or, running off it you get too close (image 17). The muddy conditions have revealed the tracks of Badger (image 18) and Muntjac. Grey Squirrels we found could climb brick walls and that must be how they arrived in our loft, we have set humane traps to catch them (images 19 and 20).
13 A male orange-tip butterfly temporarily showing its orange wingtips
14 Grass snakes have started to appear under our garden wildlife tin refugia.
15 Always fun to watch red kites wheeling above Stroud spreading and using their tails as rudders to twist and turn.
16 Slow movements are needed to see roe deer.
17 Brown hare can often be seen in the parish but get too close and they are off.
18 Muddy paths after all rain provide opportunities to see the signs of mammals, here the five toed tracks of badger.
19 Squirrels have been climbing our house wall to reach access to our loft.
20 Grey squirrel in our loft ignoring the traps; we have however, now caught two.
21 The delicate Maiden’s Blush moth on UV it side of our shed.
The final day of April was warm, and many moths were attracted to our UV and Actinic moth lights. Indeed 21 species were attracted on the night of 30th April including Maiden’s Blush (image 21), Green Carpet, Swallow Prominent (image 22), Pebble Prominent (image 23) and the chunky but well camouflaged Great Prominent (image 24).
We had Buff-tailed Bumblebee workers nesting in the cavity wall of our kitchen and to prevent them entering the house, I filled their entry hole with expanding foam, but within a few days they had chewed through the hardened foam and were flying in and out again (image 25).
April 30th saw considerable Starling activity in our roof. Youngsters were calling and one bird would fly out of the nest entrance and return a short while later beak full of food and resting on a nearby branch. Meanwhile the second bird would appear at the entrance and call loudly, fly off and the other bird would bring food to the nest (image 26) amid raucous calling from the young birds and then fly out with a massive faecal sac (images 27 and 28). Mostly, the birds would bring worms, or grubs taken from our lawn, and sometimes would bring white or pink suet pellets that they must have collected from a nearby bird table.
22 The Swallow Prominent moth that entered the moth trap. See the ‘prominent’ tuft on its head.
23 The Pebble Prominent moth also has the head tuft.
24 The Great Prominent, a large bulky moth that disappears resting on bark.
25 Worker buff-tailed bumble bee re-entering its nest despite the blocking foam.
26 Starling twisting to bring beak-full of worms into the nest cavity in our roof.
27 Starling emerging from the nest cavity with a large faecal sac.
28 Starling flying off to drop the faecal sac far from the nest.
29 Cockchafer beetle appeared on the night of 30 April.
30 The seven leafed antennae of the male cockchafer (females have six).
There is so much more I could discuss but I thought I would end with this large heavy beetle, because the Cockchafer (Maybug or Doodlebug) season has begun The females have six fan-shaped leaf segments to their antennae and males (as here) have seven. The males will soon be attracted to our lights and buzzing loudly around our heads (images 29 and 30). The name is old English and apparently means simply ‘big beetle’.
