Habitats.

Part five life in a birch woodland.

Birch, together with willow,hazel and rowan, are (pioneer) species that quickly colonise bare ground. Birch takes root readily in poor soils, and its almost weightless seeds are blown far. Its thin leaves soon rot, this then add nutrients to the soil for the trees roots to eventually re-absorb. The broken down leaves will also enrich the soil for more demanding trees like oak and beech. These two trees will grow into tall trees and eventually deprive the silver birch of light. Birch provides food and shelter for a variety of animals, birds and insects. Redpolls, blue and great tits and a host of other birds feed on birch seeds. The caterpillar of the mottled umber moth will eat the leaves of the birch. The patchwork leaf cutting bee will also use birch leaves, as she lays her eggs individually she will leave some pollen for the eggs for when they hatch. She will then seel the chamber with the leaf, she will continue this process until the chamber is full. Heather and bilberry are among the plants that thrive on the acid soils colonised by birch. The light shade that birch cast encourages the growth of many other plants, too. Young birch trees and the grass beneath them provide food for hares and roe deer. Razor strop and bracket fungus live on dead birch stems, and fly agaric will some times live on the living roots. Birch bark has been used for centuries to start fires, this is because of the natural oils it possesses, i will talking about this more on one of my bushcraft pages. The silver birch is a tree of life giving properties, vitality and nourishment. It signifies new opportunities, new beginnings,birth, re-birth and inception.

Things to look out for in October.

By now leaves are starting to fall from all of our deciduous trees. Because of the process of abscission we can start to see all the different colours as the leaves start to fall. Red wings and field fares are starting to make the long journey from Scandinavia. During the evening you can sometimes hear the chack chack chack from these birds as they fly over head. Both of these birds are from the thrush family and may sometimes be seen in a mixed species flock which may include blackbirds and song thrushes.Red deer and fallow deer begin their rut during October.  Red deer stags will try to hold onto their harem in the rutting stands and mate with as many hinds as possible, they will try and hold as many hinds as possible in their harum. They will face competition from other stags though, Male stags will thrash around in the under growth and bellow as loud as they can. They do this to show their dominance but quite often after a lot of parallel walking the two stags will finally come to blows. Sometimes the fights can end in one of the stags dying, The stags don`t eat during the rut and lose a lot of weight and can become very tired. During the rest of the year the stags all live together in herds. The fruit bodies of fungi are abundant during October as they release their spores. Fly agaric is the most famous of our fungi but be careful as it is highly poisonous. But one mushroom you can eat is the penny bun which as their name suggests look like an old penny bun that you could buy from a bakery. The penny bun belongs to the boletus family, easily recognised by their plump look and spongy sporing surface.The tawny owl is probably one of the easiest owls to see, especially at this time of the year when it is getting territorial again and responds well to impersonations. Tawny owls are setting up territories at this time of year, pairing off and searching out nesting sites. The males will bring their females food as part of their courtship ritual. The young will be ousted from the territory in which they were raised. They must find a territory that will supply them with enough food through winter, They must also find suitable roosting sites and nest holes for the breeding season. Garden orb spiders can be seen almost everywhere during this month. They are actually their during the whole year bot are more noticeable with all the autumn dew on them. Most of the males have died by now and its the females that are on the webs. Galls can be seen on some of the leaves falling from the trees. Galls are mainly the products of the activities of a group of minute insects known as gall wasps. Spangle galls look like little flying saucers, But they are actually the little homes of tiny wasp grubs,which are a well known snack for birds. Flocks of bramblings and chaffinches feast on them over the winter months. Grass snakes and adders will be starting to look for hiberaculums to hibernate in over winter. Sweet chestnuts and horse chestnuts will litter floors when you are walking through woodlands. Natterer`s bat will be starting to look for winter roosting site where they will hibernate. Although this small bat may not finally hibernate until the end of November. They may hibernate in caves or in hollow trees if caves are not available. On cool wet night`s look out for violet ground beetle`s which can be recognised by a clean-cut appearance,long legs, big eyes and a powerful set of mandibles. They are mainly nocturnal and enjoy the moist autumnal air. As their name suggests they have got a violet tinge to them and are a perfect assassin , using their mandibles like a pair of bolt cutters, taking out and slicing up any invertebrate they come across from woodlice,garden snails and great black slugs.

                                                         Garden orb spider.