The species is edible (if found in quantity!) but not nearly as good as the Orange Birch Bolete.
GT Fungi
The species is edible (if found in quantity!) but not nearly as good as the Orange Birch Bolete.
Tag Archives: Smooth Newt
The species is edible (if found in quantity!) but not nearly as good as the Orange Birch Bolete.
Hot Summer Fun at Gunnersbury Triangle Open Day
Wildlife at Nunney Castle, Somerset
Charming Wooden Animal Trail at Gunnersbury Triangle
Netty found some dusty but very well-made wooden animals, complete with attachment rings, evidently designed for use on a Nature Trail. She repainted all of them and we hung them around the reserve. The camouflaged animals – the newt and the frog – seemed to ‘work’ the best. We hope the children will have fun going around with their parents to find them. One or two may be quite difficult!
It wasn’t all wooden animals. As it happens, we saw some of the real things, November or not.
[Spoiler alert!] We went down to the pond to affix the Dragonfly, and spotted a small limp orange shape floating apparently lifeless at the surface…
Then we started mowing the Ramp Meadow with its remarkably fine stand of Evening Primroses …
… and found a real frog, escaping the scythes and boots.
The Forest School decorated Christmas Candles very gracefully.
Toad Time
It was a good day for amphibians all round, as we also saw a pair of Smooth Newts in amplexus in the pond. I didn’t get a photo for the good reason that unlike the Common Frog, they remain elusive and well-camouflaged at the bottom of the pond. And the frogs were still going at it full throttle, with around 20 splashing about beside the island.
Debrambling and Distributor Heads all in a Day’s Work
Distributor bits, wing mirror, electrical leads, yes, there used to be a garage over the fence. What with old rusty pipes, cigarette lighters, glass milk bottles (remember them?) and remains of workers’ lunches, it was quite a haul. We dug out some champion brambles and quite a few enormous nettles, too.
I also found some bits of Asbestos roofing, but we left them in situ as there was a Smooth Newt sheltering beneath them. All in all, it’s amazing what people will sling over a fence. We were happy to leave the North bank in a better state than it’s been in for many years.
Making Wooden Pegs (whatever next) … and a Congregation of Newts
Well, I’d read John Stewart Collis’ marvellous The Worm Forgives the Plough, and his description of the bill-hook as a marvellous tool, but it’s one thing to read about something and quite another to do it with a purpose.
Today, we were tasked with making edges for a stretch of path in the reserve. You can see some lengths of birch trunk lying along the path edge below my left hand. These of course had to be pegged to keep them in place, and then wired and stapled to discourage casual vandalism. The only source of wooden pegs was … more sticks. I set to work with the bill-hook, and indeed the tool is finely adapted to its job. Well-balanced, just heavy enough, and sharp, it slices through wood with a satisfying soft chopping sound. Even so, care and skill are needed, and the job takes a bit of time.
When I had made all the pegs anyone needed, I went for a little nature walk. Down by the pond a now-scarce visitor was singing in the birch trees: a Greenfinch. In the pond, several smooth newts were flicking and darting about. The sun was glinting off the water, as you can see, but it seems two magnificently spotty males were courting a drabber female at the top.