All posts by Ian Alexander

I have been in love with nature as long as I can remember. Nature photography, birdwatching, lichens, fossils, orchids, mountains, insects, everything else. Conservation, gardening at home, community gardening. I've loved it all.
Natural History

Fantastic Fungus Foray at Gunnersbury Triangle!

Alick Henrici telling a few of the GT group about Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria).
Boletus erythopus, a large brown mushroom and relative of the Cep, blue-staining when freshly cut. The colour is unprocessed , it really was that blue. Also called “Scarletina Bolete” and B. luridiformis.
All right, here you are. Amanita muscaria in all its glory

It was a beautifully sunny and warm late October day, and Alick was pessimistic. It had been far too dry for weeks and there would be very few fungi on the walk. But he admitted that children were very good at spotting mushrooms.

They were. We found 31 species,  more if you count the small Ascomycetes of the kinds whose fruiting bodies are little dots on rotting twigs.  Some indeed like the Fly Agaric and the Scarletina Bolete were large, colourful, and spectacular; others smaller and quieter, but often also beautiful, and all fascinating. None were stranger than Crepidotus mollis, the Peeling Oysterling, a bracket-shaped gill mushroom with a peeling cuticle, and an extraordinary jelly-like consistency revealed by gently stretching the cap, as shown in the photo.

Crepidotus mollis, a smooth thin cap with jelly-layer when stretched, found on path-edge log

Alick Henrici writes that he found four species new to the reserve during the Fungus Foray:

  1. Clitocybe phaeophthalma (aka C. hydrogramma); “nasty smell”
  2. Mycena crocata; “old specimen, unexpected but colours unmistakeable”
  3. Panellus stipticus; “a common late season species on wood”
  4. Pleurotus dryinus; “on Elder at post 6, not very common but often on this host”
Natural History

Helen Wallis We’ll Miss You!

Helen Wallis on Frog Day a few years ago in Gunnersbury Triangle

Helen has worked for London Wildlife Trust for ten years, several of them as volunteer officer at Gunnersbury Triangle. She did the job with enormous energy and enthusiasm, and got the best out of everybody. Her frog day was memorable not just for her stripy green face but for the improv frog puppet show conducted behind the gate to the wheelbarrow store!

In her farewell interview for Wild London, she said “We also had amazing older volunteers who could turn their hand to anything” (thanks!) … “I really enjoyed working with them [of all types], because they taught me so much – we had volunteers who were experts in everything from butterflies, birds, and amphibians, through to the military application of animal camouflage” (thanks Helen, I know who that is!) … “Plus, I was always amazed at the sheer volume of practical management work they could get done.” (We know, we know.)

Helen, have a great time in your new job at Greenwich. We’ll miss you.

Natural History

Learning how to use Camera Traps in Sydenham Hill Wood

The course began at London Wildlife Trust’s beautiful Centre for Wildlife Gardening.
The green classroom – sustainable construction materials, low energy usage, green roof
Inside a Camera Trap (this one’s an Acorn)
Emma teaching the course
Arriving at Sydenham Hill Wood
An outside classroom
Set phaser to ‘hedgehog’
Tie in position, lock the box
My turn – Rachel and me setting camera by a fox run
Fixing it nice and tight
Dramatic Indian Summer light under the old railway bridge

All these images are copyright. You are welcome to use them as long as you name me beside the image and provide a link to this page.

 

Natural History

Lunar Underwing Moth in Gunnersbury Triangle

Lunar Underwing Moth from among the grassy tussocks in the Small Meadow

We carried on clearing brambles from the north bank and then the small meadow. The debrambling of previous years has helped, as there are far fewer large deep-rooted monsters than before, but we’ve still had plenty to do. I coppiced some Holm Oak, too.

We saw two or three of these Lunar Underwing moths (Omphaloscelis lunosa) among the grass. They eat grasses such as Yorkshire Fog and Annual Meadow-Grass.

Natural History

Autumn Insects at Thursley Common

Black Darter – a dragonfly in late September, and a windy day too. The only other dragonfly about was the Common Darter, I saw two or three.
Woolly Bear caterpillar (of a Garden Tiger Moth) on one of the boardwalks.

Other insects seen included a few bumblebees and some moths scooting away in the strong wind, perhaps Silver Y.

There were only a few birds about; I saw some swallows, two stonechats, a crow, a jay, a gull, a chaffinch, and a finch-sized bird with a white rump flying into a tree, perhaps a bullfinch. Three mallard loitered on the Moat Pond.

A flash of yellow revealed some Gorse in bloom, alongside some fine purple Bell Heather.

The only fungus to be seen was a brown rollrim. A dead birch trunk was colourful with Common Orange Lichen.

 

Natural History

Autumnal Marvels at Kew

One of the delights of walking in nature, or indeed in a botanic garden, is that you never know what surprises you may meet.

Osage Orange, Maclura pomifera fruit cluster, with sticky white latex when cut. The Osage were the tallest tribe in North America; they used the wood to make bows (for shooting). Maclure was a Scottish-American geologist. Pomifera (apple-bearing) means the ‘fruit’ looks vaguely like an apple. Actually it’s more reminiscent of a luridly fluorescent green tennis ball, and about the same size too.
Wild Honey Bees guarding nest in Deodar cedar. David, one of the volunteer helpers, led us to it.
New Blue Dragon on Kew Pagoda
Natural History

Willow Emerald Damselfly at Gunnersbury Triangle

Willow Emerald or Spreadwing Damselfly, rainbow iridescent in the beautiful Indian Summer sunshine. The wings never quite close over the back as they do in other damselflies.
Southern Hawker ovipositing on boardwalk (in front of my boots)
Common Darters in Cop
Dog’s Vomit Slime Mould, Fuligo septica, on Birch log