Park Palace Wood

This is newly planted small woodland area planted over a field and hedge boundary pattertn associated with the old Otford (Archbishop's) Palace.

Male Beautiful Demoiselle.

Lots of Small Heath and Common Blue butterflies on the old fields further to the east, the soil of which looked drier and more impoverished - lots of Grass Vetchling for example.

Scoping the trees at the back of the garden!

The large Common Ash on the other side of the footpath. Rather an interesting close-up view through the telescope, showing relatively little shoot extension I think (nothing to match it against though), terminal buds beginning to form a mid-brown in colour. Could a possible early slowdown be due to the continuing prevailing dry conditions? Last year's twigs don't seem to have grown much either, again most are very short really, with many small tight black auxillary buds along their sides.

The Woodpigeons do quite a lot of damage to the young leaves and one was still having a bit of a go this evening. The leaves are otherwise quite new and fresh.

Saw a weevil high on a terminal bud, fascinating to pick it out so far away.

Half a dozen leaflets scattered throughout the canopy were showing signs of the marginal leaf gall "bubbly" rolling with (normally) claret veining probably caused by the common jumping psyllid bug, Psyllopsis fraxini. There is another, apparently much rarer in the UK, psyllid, Psyllopsis discrepens, that causes exactly the same galling, and the two causative agents can only be distinguished by examining the larvae closely, but the balance of probability is obviously heavily in favour of Psyllopsis fraxini. Perhaps we should actually refer to Psyllopsis fraxini agg., an aggregate of three very similar species feeding on Fraxinus in Europe: Psyllopsis fraxini, P. discrepans and P. distinguenda. A good reference is http://www.dorsetnature.co.uk/pages-gall/g-39.html.

From Wikipedia, eggs are laid in the autumn on dormant buds and the nymphs hatch in the spring and feed on the leaves. The host plant reacts by producing extra cells and the affected areas becomes swollen and rolls downwards and encloses the wax covered nymphs. Each gall may contain two or three generations and by the end of summer contain all stages of the insect.

The hedgerow Hawthorns. A very few old fruits, one or two mummified. Some of the flowers were capped and failed to open, persisting until now. There are huge numbers of fruitlets forming.

Sycamore on the other side of the footpath. Plenty of aphids. Are there male flowers on the end of the inflorescence tassels?

Quick trot around the Bourne walk

Plenty of Blackcap, Whitethroat and Song Thrush song. Blue Tits collecting insects.

Variable amounts of Chalara, some tricky trees along the path. A Buzzard being mobbed by two crows. Still no sign of the Grey Wagtails on the weir, I think they must have moved on.

Large amounts of leaf gall mites on the Elm leaves again.

A yellow-flowered crucifer, unidentified once again!

Laurel bashing at Dene

Hard work this morning, clearing and burning laurel, lots of interest in whether the burning of laurel is dangerous to people. And then a nice Comma Butterfly to reward me as I left.

Had a good go at Laurel pulling in the afternoon while walking Toby.

Dene Park on a sunny and warm February day

What a lovely few days, it really helps raise the spirits at this time of year when warm dry weather lasts for at least a few days!

I went down to the Alders, by the stream at the edge of the wood.

The first bird I saw was a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, but it was quickly away - too quick for a photograph.

This Blue Tit was searching the bark of an Alder tree, with the orange of the catkins forming a bit of a background to the photograph.

There were also Great Tits in the canopy - these seem to be commoner than the Blue Tits - or just louder or more visually obvious!

There wasn't much else in the woods today - lots of dog-walkers and families - but there were still Blackbirds and Robins, and of course Wood Pigeons overflying.

Birch Wood on a cloudy Sunday

I spent some time with Toby reviewing Birch Wood. There about two and a half hours, moving very slowly.

We started at the Ash tree by the path entrance, and up in the canopy there was some dead twiggery and a hung up broken off branch, with the oak tree behind. I am still worried about the pedestrians on this footpath.

There are some large Sweet Chestnuts to the northwest of the pond, variously damaged, possibly by squirrel.

There are some lovely tall "valley Alders" just by the main streamside, with mophead top shapes, but these are intermixed with a lot of tall Ash with a bit of dieback.

I added a moderate sized Oak towards the north as a notable tree but didn't get a good position fix.

I thought there were likely to be some large Birches and Cherries on the northern boundary that might be worth recording, away from the path, beyond the three Birches at the path junction.

There are a few Hornbeams mainly in the north, of various sizes.

As you move south through the mixed woods there is a patch of about half a dozen large tall Beeches.

Just to the south the tall trees change to a mix of Ash, Oak and Sweet Chestnut.

There must be half a dozen large Sweet Chestnut coppice stools on either side of the path by the eastern entrance. These, with the Beeches to the southern gate, are probably the most ancient trees in the remaining wood.

Oare to Uplees

Dunlin, Golden Plover, Redshank, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Little Grebes, Shelduck, Shoveller, Teal,