Dog wander and a few questions...

[PaulSanderson]

Hi all,

On the farm I have certain habitual rounds where I walk the dogs twice daily, always just bimbling along trying to take in as much as I can see from my surroundings. There us an old poplar plantation from the late 1700's which I sometimes pop into and to be honest I generally don't see much around....until this morning I dropped in for a brew. Excuse the pics, they are a mobile phone jobby ...

The edible and not so edible.

lots of wind damage over the years.

Picked up some tinder on the way in.

Just small enough for a brew.

Cheers BCUK

Lots and lots of this bracket fungus around on the rotting poplar...does anybody know what type and what it can be used for?

Underside of this plentiful fungus...it has a really hard exterior...

Knife made short work of the interior once the hard external "shell" was cut away...

Signs of deer damage. I have seen muntjac and roe run into the woodland when disturbed...

...and there are trails criss crossing the woodland floor.

Not sure if these are badger tracks? They are very difficult to see...

Then I saw these claw marks on a log crossing one of the trails so I think we may have badger...

A well trodden poplar-path across one of the many drainage ditches in the woodland...but trodden by whom??

Food! This time of year identifying new signs of life can be a challenge but a worthy skill to develop.

So....there you have it...a quick morning stroll past a woodland which I never if rarely stop by to check out, and one which i will keep a close eye on in the future.

Cheers
Paul.

 

[Macaroon]

Nicely written and well photographed, good little post. The fungus looks like Trametes of one sort or another, but I can't tell from the pictures; I'll bet someone will be along that knows, though

 

[Toddy]

Nice walk Thank you for the photos

That bracket fungus, and I'm no expert, but the underside looks like the artist's one that you can draw on, but I do know that the corky type layer just under the hard upper shell looks like it's worth trying for amadou

M

 

[forrestdweller]

what is that big-leafed plant in the 1st pic?!

 

[British Red]

Looks like one of the arums, probably maculatum (lords and ladies), along with chickweed, woodruff, ivy, grass and what I think is dog rose.

 

[forrestdweller]

Looks like one of the arums, probably maculatum (lords and ladies), along with chickweed, woodruff, ivy, grass and what I think is dog rose.

i'll have to google that one up (never been to UK) as most plants are different from the places where i have been- from the pic i could only ID chickweed and ivy....

 

[Joonsy]

Regarding the animal crossing log. It could be a number of animals, badgers.foxes etc, however cats in particular is highly likely as they hate getting their feet wet and will deliberately seek out ‘dry’ crossing places. If you have a cat in the area put a plank across a wet ditch or brook and they will use it to cross. If the area has numerous ditches with limited dry crossing places various animals will take advantage of them to get around the area (therefore these crossing places are excellent if you want to sit and wait to watch wildlife or photograph them, or place remote cameras, or even catch them). Deer will jump the ditch, badgers foxes hares rabbits weasels and stoats will cross a log over water however some of them will swim if necessary whereas a cat will avoid getting wet at all costs. Deer and rabbits will swim across water I have watched them do it lots of times, if they are chased by something they readily take to water in an effort to escape as do foxes. Canals are death traps to some animals that swim because they can get in but can’t get themselves out again because of the steep sides so they drown. Incidentally talking about logs rabbits love sitting on top of dead tree stumps and logs, they are often festooned with their droppings. Also as you have muntjac in the area look along the edges of ditches and brooks and you often find their tracks where they cross, they will often use the same place fairly regular, there are hundreds of muntjac by me I see them all the time, in heavy undergrowth they will often form runs underneath it like tunnels, unlike other deer they can breed all year round about every 8-9 months so can potentially have young at any time of year, they have a call like the bark of a dog which I often hear when walking in the evenings/nights.

 

[PaulSanderson]

I identified it as lords and ladies too...there were a few small purple patches on some of the leaves so that told me what i needed to know.

With regards wild cats...its a possibility but i have never seen any in the area and we have no neighbours whose pet moggies could prove to be the culprit.

It has piqued my interest now so i plan to set up a camera trap to see what other fauna we have on the farm. We have several deer species, roe, fallow, muntjac and cwd...but some folk have seen sika and one claims to have seen red deer. Would be great to confirm what great native species we have...

Thanks for dropping by my thread and leaving your comments.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

In the first picture your finger is pointing to a deer slot. Some of which has got material fallen in it partially covering it so its not very obvious. If thats what I can see in the picture then the deer was passing right to left.