Spring Catkins

The sun was out today so I decided to do a bird count for birdtrack (see link right). But I also spotted this year's trembling yellow catkin crop on one of the few coppiced hazel stools at the side of the track. They look so delicate but are robust enough to survive the fierce winds we've had lately.

I had a rummage in the leaf litter and found plenty of last year's nuts and shells, including this one.

I'm pretty sure it's a bird that's been at this nut. There were many other half shells around with no sign of rodent tooth marks. Would be great to find a wood or dormouse in this patch, but magpies are much more likely nutters....

Ancient redwood

I recently had a brief interlude in my Welsh ramblings and spent a little time in California. Big Basin State Park, on a sunny and still day is silently awesome. The occasional birdsong or the tapping of woodpeckers sounded crystal clear in the quiet forest.

The great coast redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, can be two to three thousand (yes thousand) years old and at over 200 feet are the tallest trees in the world. Older and taller than any tree in a welsh hedge.

The forest edges are somewhat hedgerow-like and make sheltered foraging and breeding areas for the many smaller birds and animals that make the forest their home.

We spotted this little newt crawling across the path in front of us. It's possibly a rough skinned newt, Taricha granulosa, which would give off a strong neurotoxin through it's skin. A very good reason to look but not touch even the smallest of creatures.

The very descriptively named Banana slug, Ariolimax californicus. Their amazing yellow colour doesn't camouflage them well in the deep leaf litter. Is it a warning to other creatures not to eat them because they may be poisonous? Banana slugs are certainly a good meal for raccoons, garter snakes, ducks, geese and salamanders so maybe the slug is just pretending in the hope it will be left alone.

Winter trees

 Among the fierce storms of recent weeks I've made the most of the odd day of sunshine, donning my wellies and setting off up the lane to take a good look at the differences between trees in winter. The largest oak (above) has untidy looking wiggly branches and twigs, and dark, grooved bark, while the sycamore bark is smoother and branches gently curve giving a more rounded silhouette.

 The ash (below) has a windswept look even on a still day, and grey tinted bark.

There be dragonflies

The sound of dragonflies wings is like no other - a percussive buzz. Here's one I heard earlier.....

a Golden-ringed Dragonfly, Cordulegaster boltonii.

I've added my sighting to the dragonfly records at Bird Track. I'll also send my sighting data to West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (both links on the right of this page). Sharing information about our native beasties helps us to understand them and so protect them better.

How old is my hedge?

My hedgerow sits among these pretty ancient Welsh fields and I really enjoy the oldness of this landscape, so thought I'd try to work out how old the path could be.
A neighbour knows her grandmother used the path to get to school in the 1870s - the derelict school building still sits in it's overgrown playground at the far end. 
On a lovely sunny evening, armed with a tape measure, I tried out a method I found on http://hedgerowmobile.com/datinghedgerows.html. I measured out four 30yd stretches and counted the number of woody plants along each. I won't bore you with the science in this post, but please do ask if you'd like to know the details.
My count averaged around 6 species per 30yds - hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, is growing on every stretch.

Comparing the number of plants to the table on Hedgerowmobile's page my hedge could be an amazing 900 years old! But looking only at the number of species gives just a rough estimate, so it could be a great deal younger.......on to the next experiment....

Roses

I was very excited to see rosebuds climbing amongst the blackthorn

but then further up the path where there is more sun I found.....

and finally.....

These are Rosa arvensis, the field rose and they grow among the tall hedge of blackthorn and hawthorn, where the path is fiarly narrow and so very shady.

Further up, where the path is wider due to tractor traffic accessing fields on either side, Rosa canina, the dog rose can be found.....

Beginnings

Here is the beginning of the path that I walk most days.

A grassy track flanked by mature trees and hedgerow shrubs atop old dry stone walls. It is a lush habitat for all manner of creatures. Over the coming seasons I shall be exploring the fauna and flora of the hedgerows, and sharing my finds with you. I'll also be adding  my sightings to various online wildlife recording surveys. It'll be good to see how the biodiversity of my little patch contributes to the bigger picture.