Short back and sides

The reserve was treated to a major clear-up by the Tuesday Stroud Valleys Project Group before the worst of winter.

The edges were scythed, long stalks of the perennial wild flowers cut and the green waste and leaves raked and piled on the compost heap. 

Brambles along the Northern hedge were cut well back.

The Western side of the reserve was made more accessible, and the undergrowth reduced around the community apple trees (which will be pruned in a few weeks time).

Self-seeded alder and willow along the edge of the pond were either removed or pollarded. There was an immediate benefit from increased light. Colourful new shoots will grow in the Spring. The golden corkscrew willow is now looking resplendent.

The cut branches were added to our brushwood pile, but may be used next year to make a ‘dead’ hedge on the West side for the benefit of beetles and birds.

Pygmy and other pond weed and rotting detritus were pulled and raked from the pond and left on the side for a week before composting, to let any mini-beasts, ramshorn snails and other small creatures (inadvertently caught) return to the water.

Clustered Bonnet

 

This time of year you are bound to come across a fungus or two. These toadstools are probably Clustered Bonnet (Mycena inclinata) growing in clusters on the rotting stump of an old oak by the Canal, about 3cm across and 5-10cm high. Another name for this mushroom is Oak-Stump Bonnet Cap, as it is usually found on decaying oak. Its spicy smell supposedly sets it apart from other bonnet mushrooms.

Other partially distinguishing features are the scalloped edge of the cap and the white woolly base of the stem.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust hosts a useful gallery of other fungi on its website.

Further information and images 

First Nature - Clustered Bonnet

Jackdaw

The UK’s smallest crow, named after its raucous call. Quite easily identified by its distinctive head with a silvery-gray hood around the back, a black cap and pale blue-gray eyes. In winter groups often gather to roost and, at dawn and dusk, form mini-murmurations.

 

Mid-day in the sunshine with the noisy hum of the by-pass in the background. A pair of ducks on the pond and no other birds visible, but there are a few chirping away.

Wren, Robin, Jackdaw and Blue tit according to Merlin. 

Further information and images

The Wildlife Trusts - Jackdaw

Things you need to know about jackdaws

Nature’s Bounty

Blackberry-Picking

… You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it …

                                              Seamus Heaney

There are still one or two berries left on the brambles by the pond, a couple of months since the first ripened. The blackberry is a shrub which poses a prickly problem as it spreads so quickly and outcompetes other plants.

Nevertheless, it’s great for wildlife at the edge of the reserve, providing a home and fruit for birds and small mammals, and flowers with nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, hoverflies and moths. With over 400 micro-species of bramble  in the UK, perhaps these ones are a bit special?

Wild raspberry canes by the pond in June

There are also some summer-fruiting wild raspberries on the South side of the pond, though the fruits are generally sparse and have just a few drupelets (the individually coated seeds). Nearby is an Elder bush.

The beautiful froths of white flowers seen in early June are now fertilised and transformed into luscious purple berries for the birds to enjoy. You might see blackbirds or robins feasting as these are one of their favourites.

Guelder Rose

At this time of year there is also other food for small mammals and birds such as the scarlet berries of the Guelder Rose (loved by the mistle thrush) and the bright vermilion Dog-rose hips by the entrance gate (snaffled by bank voles).

Shieldbugs

A Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes) crawling amongst Sycamore seeds near QEII field at the beginning of August. It’s one of our larger shieldbugs at around 15mm long.

Bugs feed on plants and other invertebrates, sucking up the juices through their piercing, needle-like mouthparts. Shieldbugs, aptly named from their shape, are often associated with particular host plants, including bushes and trees, and a few will suck the fluids from small insects such as aphids. The Red-legged Shieldbug feeds on deciduous trees and shrubs like Sycamore.

This mating pair of Green Shieldbugs (each just over 10mm long) was at the QEII pond in June. Look out for them on Hawthorn and Bramble (as in this image) where they feed on unripe berries and seeds. The female lays small clusters of eggs, which hatch within a few weeks.

Green Shieldbug nymphs and egg cases

Shieldbug young (nymphs) go through five stages, each lasting just a week or more, before becoming winged adults.

Green Shieldbug 3rd instar nymph
in August by the canal

Green Shieldbug 5th instar nymph
in August by the canal

Some shieldbugs overwinter as adults, including the Green Shieldbug (though it morphs to a brown-bronze colour to better hide in leaf-litter), some, like the Red-legged Shieldbug, as third or fourth stage nymphs, and others (such as the Spiked Shieldbug, which feeds on caterpillars) will lay eggs in late summer which won’t hatch until early spring the next year.

There are around 50 types of Shieldbug and Leatherbug in the UK. The guides linked below describe the commoner species.

Further information and images

BBC Countryfile - British Shieldbug Guide: how to identify and where to see

The Woodland Trust - Shieldbug Identification: 10 common UK shieldbugs

Summer scents

Now has the Summer passed

over your streets with
puffing cool lips
spreading the sweet smell of the lilacs’

violet-wet clusters
and the lindens scenting the air …

Gunvor Hofmo 1973

Flowers may advertise themselves through colour and scent to attract pollinators, with rewards of nectar and pollen.

This young Linden tree is by Hilly Orchard bridge and in flower June to July.

A magnet for bees, the sweet honey and lemon peel scent of the flowers can carry over the canal on a sunny day.

You are likely to see and smell numerous Buddleia ‘volunteers’ too along the canal over the summer and into autumn. Again attractive to insects and known as the ‘butterfly bush’. Once more a honey-like scent, but also sometimes described as peppery.

Not all plant aromas are attractive to insects. Herbs, for example, produce flavours and odours to deter pests like aphids and protect against microbial pathogens. Wild marjoram (oregano) was planted in 2023 at QEII field on the bank by Hilly Orchard bridge, after a year or so’s  growth it should be in flower from June to September. Despite the aromatic flavour and scent of the leaves, the pink flowers will attract and provide food for many bees, butterflies, hoverflies, moths etc.

Further information and images

WildFoodUK - Lime tree

London Wildlife Trusts - Buddleia

Woodland Trust: Wild marjoram

Oxeye Daisy

…loves me, … loves me not

 At QEII pond

Our largest daisy in the UK that loves grassland, verges and meadows and flowers throughout the late Spring and Summer.

Also called moon-daisy and moon-penny - see it at nighttime.

A robust perennial that, after a year or two, often out-competes other wildflowers from a seed mix.

Great for pollinators including bees, hoverflies, beetles, moths, butterflies as the abundant nectar is easy to get to; also a food plant for the larvae of some micro moths.

Further information and images

A Wandering Botanist - Ox-eye Daisy

Wildlife Gardening Forum - Oxeye Daisy

Dawn chorus

5:30am on a somewhat cloudy and slightly cool May morning, sitting with a flask of green tea and the birds, which are hiding but in full Spring song:

In the mix the Merlin app reckons on:

Wren, Song Thrush, Blackcap, Crow, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Robin, Greenfinch, Blue tit, Collared dove and Goldcrest.

Otter

 

Two otters and a pair of grey wagtails on my walk back along the towpath from Stroud to Ebley. The birds by the hydro grill at Dudbridge, and a female otter enjoying lunch just under Wallbridge lower lock, but she was too quick for me to get a good picture.

Then more excitement on approaching Hilly Orchard with a sleek, velvet-coated youngster swimming carelessly towards Ebley Mill. Thanks to a ‘clean’ canal, the fish and the efforts of the Cotswold Canals Trust and Stroud District Council.

Further information and images

UK Wild Otter Trust

The Anxious Gardener – an otter in Stroud

Countryfile – guide to Britain’s otters

Catkins

Hazel by the nature reserve

While you might have seen young catkins on some trees for a few months, they are just now opening to full glory as they release their pollen.

Hazel catkins

Alder at Hilly Orchard bridge

On the edge of the reserve is a hazel, on the QEII field a number of alders and opposite the reserve a black poplar; all have some stunning catkins on display.

Black Poplar on Frome Gardens

You might also find a silver birch with early catkins. (White willow {the only species amongst those mentioned here to have male catkins and female flowers on separate trees} and pedunculate oak bear their catkins a little later in the year).

In each case the wind displaces the pollen and carries it to a flower, though hazel has to be fertilised with pollen from another tree.

Further information and images

The Woodland Trust - which trees have catkins?

Wild Ebley - Common Alder