RXwildlife Sightings

The Woodland Trust purchased Guestling Wood last year. On the Trust’s website
www.treeforall.org.uk
I found this intriguing article.
“Mystery fruit tree foundThe Hastings Botany Group discovered a very unusual tree while conducting a botanical survey at Guestling Wood in Sussex. Members of the group were most surprised to come across a Medlar tree (Mespilus germanica) in the woodland.

Dave Bonsall, woodland officer for the wood, said: The tree was discovered near a Scout hut. It is quite an unassuming little tree, only about 10ft high, so could easily have been missed. It is not believed to be native to the UK and being a fruit tree, doesn’t normally grow in the wild - so it is quite an oddity to find it here

The Medlar’s normal range is south-east Europe to western Asia, although it has been cultivated for centuries beyond its normal range. The trees are dark in appearance, with contorted trunks, and solitary wild flowers on the branches.

So how did it get there? Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday 27th January 2007
0830-1100: 59sp

Little birds have begun to re-occupy the area. I counted 58 Blue & 35Great Tits and 31 Blackbirds, mostly in the tall oaks and hazel coppice alongside the railway. Wrens are evenly distributed between that habitat and reedy ditches.

Numbers of corvids have dropped off sharply, with only about 20
Carrion Crows and 10 Jackdaws, though most of the 11 Magpies were already paired up.

500 Woodpigeons, 200 Lapwings and hundreds of gulls were feeding on the large area of partially consumed kale to the west of the valley, with an indeterminate number of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails running about on the muddy areas.

Although a f Marsh Harrier (showing less white than the one a fortnight ago) did its best to flush the ducks, counting them was as tricky as ever. There appeared to be 120 Mallard, 100 Teal, 30 Shoveler, 10 Wigeon & 6 Gadwall. Interestingly, a pair of Coot had returned, echoing the increased numbers at Powdermill last week.

The Cetti’s Warbler is still in situ – this week rattling from a clogged-up ditch just S of the crossing – but I did not see the Water Pipits.

Other birds of interest: 4 Little Grebes on the Brede, Buzzard (heard) and a Grey Wagtail, also heard, at the road bridge.

Turkeytail (Trametes versicolor) a small bracket fungi can be found on dead wood of every description, Castle Water is the best place for this species on the Nature Reserve. Impressive groups of fruit-bodies can be found on old Willow stumps. During the summer months the fruit-bodies dry to thin,leathery,crumpled sheets then revive and continue growth in Autumn and Winter.

Highlights this morning included, a second winter Mediterranean Gull at the River Mouth, 28 Turnstone were also present there. On Flat Beach 202 Curlew and 4 Bar-tailed Godwit were roosting, Ternery Pool attracted 45 Teal, 22 Shoveler, 11 Gadwall and 800+ Lapwing. Along Shore Ridges, 330 Oystercatcher, 14 Grey plover and 115 Dunlin were roosting.

White-fronted Geese are up to 30 this morning, and accompanied by 9 Barnacle Geese.