Toft Wood Lichens

 There are some projects that I regret deciding to pursue and I think Lichen ID might be added to the list!! The differences between species or even genera in some cases is very small visually and so a complete classification of a localities lichens would have to involve a chemical testing! At the moment, I am resisting this and just doing tentative IDs having photographed them for their sheer beauty in colours and shapes!! These are from our 30-year old community wood in Toft. The first 3 images are from raw files sharpened and denoised with RawPrime3 and stacked in Zerene stacker while the others are jpegs from the Olympus camera's in-camera stacking. Again to shoot them all in raw, sharpen and denoise and then stack would be very time consuming. Lots of decisions!!

Toft Wood After the Snow

Yesterday, as soon as the sun was high enough to thaw the icy bit of Miller's Road for walking, I headed down to Toft Wood with my camera. There was a combination of a light layer of snow on the grounds and trees augmented by frost in the damper parts by the Bourn Brook - a very magical look with the reds of the berries and autumn oak leaves. After half an hour exploring, I headed out of the wood and round to the allotments via the Badger Sett. Very pleased to see plenty of characteristic very broad flat badger footprints at the entrance to the hole (with Rabbit and Pheasant)

Willow Warbler Arrived in Toft Wood

Heard my first Willow Warbler of the year in Toft Wood this afternoon - hopefully there will be a partner for him and at least one other pair. The buds are breaking on most of the trees and shrubs though the oaks are still tightly closed. Ted approved of a late afternoon walk. The wood is 30 years old this year - doesn't seem that long ago I helped plant it on open fields.

Lichens Toft Wood

I 'upgraded' my android phone recently  (courtesy of eBay) as my previous one only had 32GB memory which was proving difficult to run the ID apps that are so useful for naturalists these days. Although still a 2019 model, this one has more memory and a much better camera so tried it out on some lichens in our local wood - the first four images including the first image which is two related species Lecidella elaeochroma and Lecanora chlarotera that are common on the ash tree trunks. Certainly the close up mode will be very useful for small specimens such as the minute Collembolids in a piece of rotten wood. The last four images are from the Lumix full-spectrum camera. The Hazel catkins are beginning to flower while the wood itself still looks very autumnal. 

ps. those who know Phil will be glad to hear he now has my old phone and so is officially 'Smart' .

Halloween and Autumn Colours

Yesterday was the annual carving of Pumpkins ready for this evening. Meredith chose a mouse for the second year running which is not the easiest design!!Sadie was more traditional. The leaves and fruits are fast disappearing from Toft Wood so a quick visit in the sunshine to record for this autumn.