Fine strands of dodder twirl around the clusters of flowers at the top of this curled dock’s stem. Dodder is a parasitic climbing plant, a member of the convolvulus family.
Curled Dock
Category: Habitats
Patio Potatoes
Our first early Maris Bards, growing in a corner of the patio next to the water butt.
Over the Pond
I like to leave overgrown corners for wildlife but it’s time to cut back the nettles, hogweed, blackberry and sorrel behind the pond before they take over.
Nettle Rust Fungus
Orange stipples of rust fungus, Puccinia urticata, have caused a swelling on a stem of stinging nettle. This fungus has an alternate generation which grows on sedges, which doesn’t result in swellings. This nettle was growing next to a pendulous sedge, Carex pendula, behind the pond.
Harlequin Ladybird
When I started my Wild Yorkshire blog, harlequin ladybirds had yet to be recorded in Britain. The first records were in 2004 but now they’re our commonest ladybird.
Dozens of them spend the winter gathered snuggly in the narrow gap between our back bedroom window and its frame. There’s a great variety in their markings. A harlequin might have red spots on black or black spots on red. They can vary from having zero to as many as 21 spots.
Flea Beetle?
I’m going for flea beetle, possibly Altica lythri, as the identity of the small beetle I found on a sorrel leaf.
The UK Beetles website describes it as a common beetle of parks, gardens, wasteground, dunes and salt marsh. The food plants of its larvae include willowherbs, loosestrife, enchanter’s nightshade and evening primrose.
Brown Rat
The rat jawbone may be the remains of a fox kill but the foxes haven’t succeeded in eradicating every last brown rat in the area.
We had one of those sudden drenching showers this afternoon with hailstones falling amongst the heavy rain. As I walked across the back lawn later it was squelching underfoot. The run-off noticeably topped up the pond and it will have refilled the water butts attached to the fall pipes from our roof.
The local rat burrows were probably flooded too as we saw a large brown rat run across the patio, only to change its mind and run back again a minute later. It was the first we’ve seen for months, if not years.
Stoneycliffe Wood
The wild garlic is at its most deliciously pungent this morning at the top, marshier end of Stoneycliffe Wood Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve.
Wild garlic, also known as ransons, Allium ursinum.
A tattered peacock butterfly, Nymphalis io, pauses to feed on the flowers.
Roe Deer Slots
Our neighbours have spotted deer in the valley recently so I was on the look-out for tracks. The size – about 2 inches, 5cm – fits roe deer, the species that is often seen in the area.
Greater Woodrush
Greater woodrush (also known as great wood-rush), Luzula syvatica, is an indicator of dry acid soil.
It has clusters of small rush-like flowers.
It has long white hairs along the edges of its shiny leaves, a feature of woodrushes that you don’t see in grasses, sedges or rushes.
Bluebell
As I walk through a drift of bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, at the top end of the valley I get a waft of hyacinth scent, but nowhere near as pungent as the wild garlic.
Wood Speedwell
Wood speedwell, Veronica montana, straggles over a mossy log by a woodland track. It’s a plant of moist, neutral soils, often found in ancient woodland.
Raised Beds
After 15 or 20 years the raised veg beds are beginning to come apart at the corners and rot through in places.
I like the L-shaped beds as they are but wheeling a barrow down the garden is a bit of an obstacle courses, especially steering past the greenhouse.
So our plan is to widen the central path – and perhaps the side paths to give better access to the beds. It’s a big job but we’re getting Earnshaw’s the local timber and fencing centre in to give us a quote for the doing the work.
Planting veg and covering it with netting or cloches to keep the pigeons off should then be a whole lot easier.
And then I can turn my attention to the rampant chicory that has, as always, taken over my patch of what should be a wild flower meadow.
Maris Peer
Still a bit too early to put these in as we’re still having the occasional overnight frost.
Maris Bard
My right thumb is doing well – I’d sprained it with a marathon session of snipping back the ivy and hawthorn – but I’m still keen to practice drawing with my non-dominant left hand. These chitted Maris Bard first early seed potatoes are ideal subjects for my wobbly pen.
Secret Walls
George Street, Wakefield: Wall-rue and Maidenhair Spleenwort on a brick wall which probably dates back to the days of the cattle market, and a mossy pool on the roots of an old flowering cherry. The ‘well kept secret’ herbs and spices are served at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Westgate Retail Park.
First Day of Spring
It rained for much of today but by 4 o’clock the towering cumulus clouds had passed over and it was bright enough to encourage me to put on my 1970s black wellies and cross a soggy, mossy lawn to trim back the ivy by the shed.
The birds are already singing and showing interest in denser sections of the hawthorn hedge. Luckily I pruned the rowan, crab apple and the holly hedge at the end of the garden a month ago.
Barbara spotted some frog activity last week and today I noticed two clumps of spawn in the usual, sunniest, corner of the pond.
Penguin Dance
I’ve often seen great-crested grebes go through their head-shaking, ritualised preening display, but at last this morning at RSPB St Aidan’s, we got to see the presentation of beakfuls of water-weed and the penguin dance where the male and female rise from the water, breast to breast, paddling furiously and swaying heads. They appeared to drop the weed as they started this routine. They then returned to head-bobbing display.
We’ve yet to see the ‘ghostly penguin’ and the ‘cat display’ which apparently start off the whole routine.