The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - March 2007
King Alfred’s Cake
Walking through a woodland you will often see ash trees with black blobs on them, usually on dead branches or on branches that have fallen off the tree. This has several names including coal fungus or cramp balls or King Alfred’s cakes. These hard, semi-spherical black lumps are usually about 3-4 cm in diameter and are the fruiting bodies of a fungus, which decays the dead wood of the ash tree. The photo shows the inside of one of these pictured on a log in my back garden - not on an ash tree.
Legend has it that King Alfred, Read more…
Hedgehogs & Phenology
Last year, a post in the woodlands blog commented on the decline in the hedgehog population. Sadly, these last few months have done little to help Hedgehogs. Tiggywinkles has taken in hundreds of disoriented and weakened hedgehogs since last September. The winter has not been cold enough for them to hibernate (which they normally do between late December Read more…
The birds and bees
The first blog in February talked about the revival of interest in Phenology over the last few years. Already this year is providing interesting phenological facts and figures.
January has proved to be the warmest in the UK since 1916; there was 17% more sunshine and 21% more rain than normal. On the 23rd January, Robin chicks hatched in Roehampton. The mother laid her eggs in a Christmas wreath decoration, Read more…