Fungi at Fingeringhoe

Went exploring at Fingeringhoe Wick nature reserve last weekend, run by the Essex Wildlife Trust. Amazing views across the flats ..

Further inland we explored a wonderful wooded walk area, full of fallen leaves and secret paths and .. fungi! I didn't get to go on a guided fungi walk this autumn as I'd hoped, so I just snapped anything I could find to look up in books later.

Identifying Trees

I spent a fantastic morning in early September with members of the British Naturalists Association (Central and North Essex Branch)in the woods at Little Baddow, learning to identify trees.

This is something I'd wanted to be better at for some long while, but its not always so easy to be ferreting about in a book looking things up while you're out and about, especially with active little boys around .. better to be playing and having fun! So to have the opportunity of someone more experienced taking the time to actually show me how to recognise a range of the more common trees was a great treat.

I'm sure I won't remember a lot of what I saw, but even if a few trees stick each time then I will be getting there .. and I'll definitely go again next year, as it was such a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours with lovely people in beautiful peaceful surroundings. The things I was most pleased to have seen were the Wild Service Tree, which is apparently quite rare, and the seed pods of Hornbeam which are beautiful .. I would have had no idea what they were beforehand. I can now also distinguish between a Sycamore and a Field Maple! It was also interesting to see healthy young elm trees growing .. I had not realised that they are not affected by Dutch Elm disease until they reach the height of about 10 feet.

I find writing things out helps me to remember (partly why I blog!) but also I am finding that its important when I have been shown things to go straight out again within a few days to look for the trees or plants again, while the new knowledge is fresh. And, later that week, I was lucky enough to stumble across a beautiful area of trees at Wivenhoe Park on the University of Essex campus. This gave me the chance to test my knowledge and take some pictures to reinforce what I had learnt.

Learning about different types of Oak trees.. on the Pendunculate Oak, acorns have stems but leaves don't, as seen here. With Sessile Oaks it is the other way around (am on the hunt but haven't found one yet).

And here is Alder, my favourite tree from the whole experience. Completely new to me, I remembered we were told it liked/could happily tolerate the wet, and here at Wivenhoe were alder trees growing right at the edge of a lake. Its got a nice distinctively-shaped leaf for the novice spotter and, best of all, its cones stay on the tree right the year round giving you another means to identify it.

As we went round I collected a leaf from each tree and wrote its name in biro on the back as a reference (sacrilege, I know, but for the greater good!). Then when I got home I was able to press and keep the leaves in an album. I had scribbled little notes of what were told onto the back of the handout, and I copied these out alongside.

National Tree Week

Those in the UK might be interested to know about the Tree O'Clock event which is taking place next Saturday, 5th December ... a mass tree-planting exercise! You can either go along to one of the many local planting events or you can pledge to plant a native species tree at home. All the information you need can be found at Breathing Places, which is well worth a visit even if you can't participate in the event.

"To help celebrate National Tree Week, BBC Learning has teamed up with Guinness World Records for Tree O'Clock – a nationwide challenge to plant as many trees as possible within a single hour, uniting the nation in an event which will provide a lasting legacy and an amazing learning opportunity for all ages.

At 11.00am on Saturday 5 December everyone is invited to join in and "do one thing" for nature by simply planting a tree and, in doing so, learn the benefits of plantingthe right tree in the right place.

In a recent survey for The Woodland Trust, 86% of people asked said they would like to see more trees being planted in their local area. And over 70% said if they had a wood within walking distance it would encourage them to exercise."

Babe in the Woods

This one's for Cheryl .. I don't really go much for sharing personal things on my blog as the internet is such a vast public space and I'm a very private person. So I might even remove this in a few days time. But just one little (albeit quite anonymous) photo of the newby!



This is littleun's first trip to the woods - it has been so sweltering here in London that we headed for the shady trees at Queen's Wood, Muswell Hill. There had been a monumental thunderstorm and downpour the previous evening and it was so refreshing - it smelt clean and green and earthy.