Firecrest

Photo: J von Leyden

Photo: J von Leyden

It's not often you get this close to the UK's smallest bird. The trick is to have it fly into a window and stun itself. My neighbours kindly arranged just such an event and called me to come and see. I corrected their impression that it was a juvenile goldfinch but misleadingly as it happened as I told them it was a Goldfinch! It is in fact a Firecrest, Regulus ignicapilla, the similar but much rarer first cousin of the Goldcrest. The distinguishing features are the white cheeks and black eyestripe. The Firecrest is slightly larger than the Goldcrest but imperceptibly so. It inhabits the same habitats: mainly conifers. 
Firecrests first bred in the UK in the early 1960s (Goldcrests have always been around) and in Sussex in the 1970s. Their numbers here are increasing. 
Usually you hear them before you see them. Firecrest song is a single accelerating note whereas Goldcrest ends with a slight flourish, not unlike the flourish of the Chaffinch.


Having enjoyed close-up views of the bird I proceeded to sample the delicious blackberry, elderflower and lime drizzle cake on offer. I fancy it was finer than the raspberry friands on offer last week, but it's not easy to be sure.

House Spider

I'm not really keen on spiders; slightly phobic like so many people. It's annoying. I've been trying to overcome it by taking a more scientific interest. 
This is the common house-spider, Tegenaria domestica, which can grow to a considerable (and scary!) size. They are fast movers too. This one was posing nicely so I thought I'd snap it for the blog. It is a male I think: more elongated body and impressive pedipalps. The latter also contain a small chamber for storing semen prior to fertilising the female. 
I confess I didn't have the nerve to pick it up so encouraged it to get off my clothes by annoying it slightly.

Wall Bedstraw

This is Galium parisiense or wall bedstraw. It looks a bit like hedge bedstraw but the differences are its weak roots, more prostrate habit, the recurved prickles on the angles of the stems and the forward pointing prickles on the leaves. It is now rare in the British Isles and declining so I was suprised to find it growing at the base of a wall not more than 20 metres from my house.
The leaves aren't actually all leaves. Only two are leaves, the others are stipules. Quite why the stipules evolved to mimic the leaves is beyond me. 

Cock's Foot

To continue the grassy theme, this is one of the easier to identify of the common grasses: cock's foot, orchard grass or Dactylis glomerata. (No prizes for guessing where this was growing.)
It is a key plant in one of the National Vegetation Classification categories (MG1) along with false oat-grass.
The National Vegetation Classification (NVC): now there's a thing. Very important in ecological circles!

Wall Barley

How gratifying to find wall barley, Hordeum murinum, growing by a wall.
This is growing by the prison wall along with what seems to be an endless variety of other plants, many of which have featured on this blog. 
It's biodiversity in action right on our doorstep, right under our noses, and largely ignored by everyone!

Borage

 











I was surprised to find this growing on the verge near our house. Perhaps because it seems a bit early for Borago officinalis?
It is not a native but has been grown here for about 800 years. It's not really naturalised and exists as a garden escape. It is increasingly planted to attract bees.

 Despite the off-putting hairiness, the leaves and flowers are nice to eat, having a cucumber flavour. The flowers can be floated in drinks or frozen first in ice-cubes.

An odd footnote: it is not mentioned in Mr Grigson's book. Weird.
 

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff - Andreas Trepte. Licensed underCC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons

Our Gilbert (White) separated this bird from the almost identical looking willow warbler and the slightly less similar wood warbler, back in 1789. He did so by realising their songs were very different.
They still are and chiffchaff, Phylloscopus collybita, is one of the easiest bird songs to recognise (up there with cuckoo).
They are migratory, spending winter on the Med and North Africa, but in the last couple of decades a number of birds stop their southward journey in southern Britain. I see them around Lewes all year round. It is always great to hear the first male singing its onomatopoeic song. 
 

Dove's-foot Crane's-bill

I completely forgot to post yesterday despite ample time, so two posts today to make up.
This was growing at the base of the wall on the pavement where several other plant-posts have originated. There are an extraordinary number of species growing along this 100m stretch of wall, either unnoticed or considered mere 'weeds' by the average pedestrian. I must count them one day. 
Dove's-foot Crane's-bill, Geranium molle, looks like Small-flowered Crane's-bill but is distinguished by having long hairs rather than adpressed down on the stems, all ten stamens have anthers (rather than just five) and the fruits are smooth (see microscope pic).

Great Horsetail

 











I found this on my Ouse riverbank walk the other day. It's Great Horsetail or Equisetum telmateia. 
It's in the same division as the ferns (Pteridophyta) as it reproduces by spores rather than seeds. It's one of two species in the genus that produce non-green cone-bearing shoots in Spring before the green, branched shoots that appear in Summer.  It is one of the living fossils, being the only surviving genus from a class of plants that dominated the land back in the Carboniferous period when coal was being formed. Some species were trees reaching 30m in height.

"Equisetopsida" by Rror Licensed under

 CC BY-SA 3.0

Wood Spurge

This is Wood Spurge or Euphorbia amygdaloides. It is a striking plant and as a result has suffered the attention of horticulturists to provide a variety of cultivars. I suspect this is one such as it was growing at the end of a driveway just round the corner. The genus has distinctive flowers with weird 'glands' and large bracts (which might be mistaken for green petals) which look a bit like ruff collars. The glands are the small crescent-shaped things around the flower.
The flowers are borne in an umbel.
I've done two today to bring up the number of species posted to the number of days in the year. At least I think that's right. Will double-check that tomorrow.

Northern Raven

Common Raven by Diliff Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Just to complete our local chalk-cliff nesting birds, the common or northern raven is presented.
They used to be common but ten years ago there were only five pairs nesting in Sussex with all apart from the Lewes birds nesting on coastal cliffs. They mate for life, which can be more than twenty years. 
Apart from their great size they can be identified by their heavy roman nose bill and shaggy breeches. In flight they have a very distinctive call, usually rendered as "prruk" in guidebooks. "The gentle prukking of the ravens" is a phrase that has stuck in my mind from somewhere. It is a sound best heard in remote silent mountain valleys. 
As a footnote: I published this when on holiday in Morocco from the south-east side of the High Atlas mountains en route to the desert. In the desert the most noticeable birds were the ravens. They were of the subspecies C. c. tingitanus and are the smallest of the raven subspecies.
 

Peregrine

Californian Peregrine falcon by Kevin Cole

We are blessed in Lewes by having had peregrines, Falco peregrinus, nesting on the chalk cliffs just south of the Cuifail tunnel opposite the Railway Land. They share the cliff, after a fashion, with hundreds of jackdaws and a long-suffering pair of ravens. The peregrines really don't like the ravens and spend a significant portion of their non-hunting time dive-bombing the unfortunate corvids. Sadly they sometimes take the raven chicks before they fledge. 
There are a lot of superlatives applied to this bird and if you get the chance to spend time getting to know them you will understand why. It's fastest recorded speed is 242 miles per hour, making it easily the fasted animal on the planet.
My first experience of them was in Melbourne. A pair nested on a skyscraper in the central business district. We were walking up the main drag when a dead pigeon fell from the sky, landing on the pavement about six feet from us. Today I saw a pristine male (tiercel) sitting on a ledge on a cliff in an old chalk pit. He had bright yellow legs and bill and looked, to use an over-used adjective perhaps appropriately, awesome.
They were nearly wiped out by poisoning from pesticides in the 1950s and 60s. DDT was the main culprit. Last year I picked up a fine first edition of J A Baker's classic The Peregrine which immediately made it into the top ten 'next books to be read' list.
They have a fairly distinctive cry in flight:
  

Jackdaw

Corvus monedula - London by Maxwell Hamilton

Given there are about 700 - 800 jackdaws in and around Lewes, sharing the chalk cliffs with the peregrines and ravens, and their calls are part of the background noise of life in the town, I thought I'd do them next. 
The common name derives from 'jack' meaning small, and 'daw' which is the vernacular English name for the bird. The Latin specific name comes from moneta, meaning 'money'. 
They cause a bit of a nuisance when they attempt to nest in chimney pots. Lots of houses in town have wire mesh covering them to prevent this. One of it's dialect names is the chimney sweep bird.

 

Cleavers or Goosegrass

Many a country walk with children involves sticking cleavers or goose grass on people's backs, ideally without them realising. It's a common plant and one of the first out of the gates in spring. It's also difficult to get rid of once it gets a roothold in your garden, even though it's an annual.
It's actually edible and has been used for all sorts of things, from stuffing mattresses and making sieves, to dying cloth red (the root) and providing a coffee substitute (roasted seeds).
It's binomial is Galium aparine and it's in the fourth biggest family of flowering plants, Rubiaceae. Coffee and bedstraws are siblings. The family belongs to the order is Gentianales after the gentians, which themselves are named for the Illyrian king Gentius. I hope that's clear.

Alexanders

Is this the first of the Umbelliferers to flower? Smyrnium olusatrum or Alexanders was introduced by the Romans and used as a celery substitute. It apparently prefers a maritime climate but it certainly thrives in Lewes. Grigson notes that it is often found near monastic sites and one wonders if it was cultivated at Lewes Priory and naturalised from there. In medieval times it was known as parsley of Alexandria. It was cultivated up to the 18th century then replaced by celery. Although not unpleasant tasting it apparently leaves a very bitter after taste and to reduce this, should be blanched by earthing up the lower stem. 

Common Whitlowgrass

Another pavement specialist, this is common whitlowgrass or Erophila verna. The picture on the right is of one of the seed pods which I've opened down the middle of the flattened 'belly' to reveal the seeds. These are attached by tiny stalks in two rows. 
It is a member of the Brassicaceae/Cruciferae or cabbage family and gets its common name from it being used to treat whitlows back in the day. In common with (nearly) all its siblings it has four sepals and petals and six stamens. It is unusual amongst its siblings in having deeply notched petals. It lives fast and dies young, being impossible to find after April is out. 

Groundsel

I thought I'd make the photo extra large as this is quite a small but incredibly common plant. It's one of the pavement plants, part of the footpath flora we walk past every day. Senecio vulgaris is one of the ragwort crowd and a member of the daisy family, Asteraceae. The key identification feature is the black tips of the short outer bracts and (less obvious) long inner bracts. It is an annual so must be declared something of a winner given its ubiquity, despite invariably attracting the epithet "weed".

Ivy-leaved Toadflax

 

















This has just started flowering in sheltered, sunny locations. It is Cymbalaria muralis and my photos don't do justice to the flowers. If you follow the link to the Wikipedia page you'll see what I mean.
It is another unassuming little plant that now grows almost universally on old lime-mortared walls, yet is was only introduced from southern Europe in the early seventeenth century. One nineteenth century writer had it that it was introduced to Oxford from Italy when sculptures were imported and that it rapidly spread around the college walls. One of its names is Oxford weed.
However Mr Grigson has the first record accorded to one of the best known amateur gardeners of his time, Mr William Coys, who was growing it in his Essex garden in 1618.
It has evolved to thrive on walls/rock faces by growing towards light until after flowering when seed is setting; it then becomes negatively phototropic, turning back in towards the wall and any crevices where seed can best germinate.  

Ground Ivy

Another flower today. Although named ground ivy, I found this Glechoma hederacea growing on top of a fallen tree trunk down on the Railway Land. It's a member of the Lamiaceae family - the mints and deadnettles - and in keeping with this has zygomorphic flowers. It's apparently very sensitive to boron, so if you see it growing you can deduce a low level of boron in the soil and impress your friends!
Native to Europe and south-west Asia but has been spread around most of the world. It is poisonous to cattle and horses but we humans have used it in salads and in brewing before the use of hops. This explains its other common names: alehoof and tunhoof. Medicinally it has been used, like so many herbs, for virtually everything. In particular it was recommended for colds and coughs and other respiratory disorders. 

Jelly Ear

This is the first non- lichenized fungus. It's quite common, can be found all year round, and grows on deciduous trees, especially elder, which these are growing on. Its Latin name is Auricularia auricula-judae, which is probably the most politically incorrect binomial of any organism (big money prize for anyone who can identify a more offensive one). It wasn't that long ago that the common name was Jew's ear, but I note that the current edition of Phillips (see useful books) refers to it as Jelly ear. I wonder if the ICN will catch up and change the binomial?
My thanks to Mr James von Leyden for pointing this specimen out.