Nature Notes October 2024
Date Published: 01-11-2024
October weather was very mixed although mostly mild, with rain, wind, dry and sunny days with a few early morning mists.
SIGHTINGS
Birds (seen or heard): Carrion Crows, Magpies, Jays, Buzzards, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Tawny Owls, Sparrowhawk, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves, Nuthatches, Treecreepers, Siskins, Stonechats, Dartford Warblers, Spotted Flycatcher, Wrens, Robins, Blackbirds, Song Thrush, Dunnocks, Goldcrest, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Bullfinches, Goldfinches, Coal/Blue/Great/Long-tailed Tits, Chiffchaffs.
Mammals: Grey Squirrels, Fox, Woodmice, Hedgehogs, Brown Rat.
Insect/Spiders: Wood Lice, Flies, Midges, Wasps, Sheet Web Spiders.
Reptiles/Amphibians: Palmate Newt.
Butterflies/Moths: Large White, Brimstone, Peacock.
Pond Life: Pond Skaters.
Plants in Flower/Berry: Blackberries, Rowan, Crocosmia, Common Gorse, Ivy.
Fungi/Lichen: Blewit (Collbia nuda), Common Mycena (Mycena galericulata), Candle Snuff (Xylaria hypoxylon), Fragrant Funnel (Clitocybe fragrans), Gooseberry russula (Russella queletii), Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata), Turkey tail (Trametes vrsicolor).
Overall, a quiet month on the Reserve, with many migrant birds having departed during the month.
Recorders: C Wilcox K Wilcox
NATURE FACT
Common Greenshield Lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata) is a foliose lichen that grows on the bark of trees and, occasionally, on rocks. A conspicuous medium to large leafy lichen, it is pale grey when dry and yellow green when wet. It has rounded lobes, measuring 3 to 8 mm wide, and these often have a wrinkled appearance, especially in older specimens, looking like molten wax.
Common Greenshield Lichen Image by K Wilcox
