Category Archives: Natural History

Natural History

Launched! West London Wildlife book

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The book’s authors assembled to sign copies: (from left) Roger Tichborne (blogger), Lisa Woodward (manager of London Wetland Centre), Philip Briggs (runs National Bat Monitoring Programme), Gary Backler (chair of Friends of the River Crane), Ian Alexander (London Wildlife Trust volunteer, author of The English Love Affair with Nature), Susanne Masters (botanist of edible plants), and Wanda Bodnar (marine data scientist and paddleboarder)
Natural History

Fungi and Lichens in Blenheim Park

Impressively lichened west-facing trunk of Beech tree, Blenheim Park
Wonderfully geographic lichened surface, close-up
Geographic … Oxfordshire Map in Woodstock Museum … does look much the same, doesn’t it?

Roots of a Beech tree in the park, straight from Middle-earth
Waxcap! Probably the Butter Waxcap, Hygrocybe ceracea: quite a few of them in a quiet corner among the grass
A huge Artist’s Bracket, Ganoderma applanatum, on Beech, its preferred host
Perhaps Rootlet Brittlestem, Psathyrella microrhiza
Love of Nature, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Fabulous Fungi in Gunnersbury Triangle!

Humaria hemisphaerica – glazed cup fungus
Geastrum striatum – streaked earthstar (the smaller cousin of the collared earthstar, also found in the Triangle)
Stereum hirsutum – orange curtain crust
Daedaleopsis confragosa – Blushing Bracket – discolours reddish when scratched, as you can see
Netty, now with the RSPB, and volunteer Olwyn by the pond during the fungus foray
Fungus expert Alick Henrici collecting some interesting-looking ear fungi
The Candlesnuff fungus, Xylaria hypoxylon, has now grown into some glorious Stagshorn shapes, all around the reserve
Tremella cf. foliacea, the yellow brain fungus
Xerocomellus (formerly Xerocomus), a Bolete mushroom (in the Cep family) with little tubes ending in pores on the underside of the cap, not gills
Hyphodontia sambuci – elder whitewash (as here, not always on Elder). Lovers of Italy will know Sambuca as an elderberry and anise liqueur!
Tricholoma cf. album, the white knight, in the anthill meadow
Agaricus sp., an edible mushroom in the same genus as the commercial champignon de Paris and the field mushroom
Lepista inversa, the tawny funnel, a mushroom in the same genus as the delicious wood blewits
Love of Nature, Natural History, Nature Reserves

Autumn (Apples) in Chiswick

Gunnersbury Triangle’s acid grassland fringed by silver birches on old railway track, in beautiful “Indian Summer” October sunshine. The railway clinker was of hard acidic rock, brought (obviously) by rail, from somewhere up north or out west.
One day’s tomato harvest!

Cox’s Orange Pippins from the garden
Natural History

Stag coming out of ‘velvet’

New Antlers! Strips of ‘velvet’ – the layer of skin that (astonishingly rapidly) develops the antlers, from nothing each year – are hanging from the tines. The deer are today in small groups, quite unlike the massed winter herds. The stags are still sitting unconcernedly with the hinds and other stags, but evidently not for much longer. Soon it’ll be the rutting season.

At the Beverley Brook, we were lucky enough – it was quiet enough – to come close to a Heron, fishing in the stream; and just at that moment, a Kingfisher darted up-river, brilliant turquoise, heartstoppingly beautiful. It landed on a willow branch above the water: such a small bird, such perfect colours.

‘Common’ Blue butterfly in the wide meadows of Richmond Park
Natural History

Songs for the End of the Earth, #3 One Man Liked to Eat …

One man liked to eat … meat from soy-fed livestock.
One man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Two men liked to heat … their homes with old gas boilers.
Two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Three men liked to drive, to drive with petrol engines.
Three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Four men liked to cool … their houses with air conditioning.
Four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Five men liked to fly … to faraway sunny places.
Five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Six men liked to sit … at tropical hardwood tables.
Six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Seven men liked to build, to build with steel and concrete.
Seven men, six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Eight men liked to buy … things all wrapped up in plastic.
Eight men, seven men, six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Nine men liked to drink … stuff out of plastic bottles.
Nine men, eight men, seven men, six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

Ten men liked to have … cheap food from distant countries.
Ten men, nine men, eight men, seven men, six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, contributed to global warming.

See also: Songs for the End of the Earth #2