Nature notes

I made mention of a fungus that is attacking ash trees and causing a condition known as ash die-back, this proving fatal to the tree in the majority of cases.  I expressed some surprise at the comment in newspaper reports that this could put at risk some 30% of the broad-leaved woodland in England as I had no idea that the ash comprises such a high proportion of our trees.  Yesterday I enjoyed my first walk in Stanmer woods for several weeks.  I have kept out of the woods partly because we have so much rain and the dog attracts mud like pigs attract flies.  Yesterday, however, I decided that the wind would have dried the paths to some extent and off we set.  I took particular note of the variety of trees: beech, oak, chestnut, hazel, ash, sycamore, field maple, holly, yew and several I did not recognise.  What did surprise me was the high number of ash trees in those parts of Stanmer Great Wood where the trees were mixed.  Granted, there are parts - sometimes quite extensive parts - where a good 90% of the trees are beech.  Indeed, there are patches where all the trees are beech.  There are also patches of mixed hazel and chestnut with an occasional oak.

Which reminds me.  Although ash die-back has been in the news recently, the oak, beech and larch are also suffering from fatal diseases even though I can't remember what they are.  I must enjoy our woods while I can.

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We do get quite a variety of birds in the garden.  Regular visitors include house sparrows, hedge sparrows, wrens, blue and great tits, robins, blackbirds, starlings, wood pigeons, collared doves, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, jays, herring gulls, chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches - and probably others I have overlooked.  I don't spend a lot of time gazing out of the windows, but most days I glance out from time to time and perhaps spend a minute or two watching what is going on.  It is the greenfinches that puzzle me; they are not as green as I seem to recall from days gone by, being more of a dull olive.  Indeed, if it were not for the yellow flash on the wings they could be mistaken for slightly off-colour female house sparrows.

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Talking of looking out of the window, I did so while I was at the kitchen sink washing up the breakfast things and noticed that the sun was shining brightly on the fields across the valley.  Every field was a bright green, right up to the ridge.  Even the copse on the ridge was in sun, but the sky behind was a deep purple-grey.  It was a dramatic picture but I knew that by the time I had put the battery back in the camera and got up to the bedroom window, the scene would have changed.  In fact, I might have managed it.  Curses!

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When I am working in the garden, a robin frequently serenades me from the cherry tree.  Either that, or he comes to watch what I am doing.  This, of course, is the European robin which, at 5 to 5.5 inches long, is somewhat smaller than its American cousin.