Here is the start of my account for Wed 10 June - this year's visit for Churches Count on Nature Week.
We had a rainy morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon when the children from Class 4 came from Embsay Primary School. No pictures of the 30 children because of getting permission for photos of children is difficult. But the children worked hard and had a good time.
The Purple Sage near the church porch was very popular with two types of bee
Having collected tall examples of grasses beforehand from some of the patches in the grave-yard left unmown, I had time at the beginning to introduce the children to the flowers of grasses such as Yorkshire Fog, False Oat-grass, Foxtail, and Fescue - four "F"s
plus Ryegrass and Cock's-foot and three Meadow Grasses. but maybe that's enough.
and to demonstrate to the whole class the use of a handlens -- .
We looked at the bees who loved the purple sage.
One girl found an enormous worm - .. This long (stretch out arms...)
In one quadrat I found some of worm casts. (See my notes on worms at the end. We had been asked to look for evidence of creatures as well as the creatures themselves.
We stood and listened for two minutes to all the sounds we could hear. Aprat from a plane an some cars and the wind,
I could hear
"Take two coos, Taffy, Take two coos Taffy" - Wood pigeon
and "Jack! Jack!" - Jackdaw
and "Caw" - Rook or crow.
Revd could hear "Chiff, chaf, chiff, Chaff"
Others could hear a black bird (talks in sentences with gaps in between)
After the children left, Liz, Lesley, and I had time to look round the churchyard ourselves. We especially revisited the area of huge logs left where an old dangerous sycamore tree had been felled the previous year. This disturbed area has been left natural. We found the beautiful Collared Parachute-mushroom - Marasmius rotula growing near the base of the saw off trunk.
I do hope someone will count the rings on the trunks to find out how old the tree was.
Nearby, squashed between the sawn trunk of the sycamore and the tall beech trees along the east boundary they have recently planted a whitebeam. At least this will not grow too tall. They had to plant a tree to replace the sycamore. Meanwhile the sycamore trunk is merrily sprouting lots of side shoots itself, and there are at least two ash saplings growing in the forks between the butresses/roots of the old trunk
Plus Hedge Woundwort, Wood Aven, Bird's-eye Speedwell, and Herb Robert. A bit less inspiring is the large patch of Ground Elder - I reminded Liz that this weed IS edible when the leaves are young -and was introduced about a thousand years ago because it is edible
I recorded one extra lichen (Bilimbia sabulatorum) to add to my lichen list.
Mosses
This year I decided to make a start on Mosses.
In fact, for a long time I only found three mosses, on the stone boundary wall, on the base of the grave stones and on tree bases:-
1. Homalothecium sericium Silky wall Feather-moss
2. Hypnum cupressiforme, Cypress-leaved Plait Moss
3. Rhytidadelphus squarrosus Springy Turf-moss
On the tarmac path beside the Purple Sage plant and Wooden seat was some type of yet-to-be-identified tiny cushion moss (my name for acrocarpou mosses maybe a Didymodon species Beard-moss)
4. Let's just call it Beard Moss for now.
On the west wall of the church was a few tufts of
5. Tortula muralis. Wall Screw-moss
Then on the west side of the church there was a kerbed grave. (in the foreground below)
This had four mosses:
6. Thuidium tamariscinum, Common Tamarisk-moss
7. Calliergonella cuspidata, Pointed Spear-moss
8. Cirriphyllum piliferum Hair pointed Feather Moss
and of course lots more Rhytidiadelphus squarosus all growing amongst some Creeping Soft grass (Holcus mollis)
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| Creeping Soft-grass - the shoots come up separately because they are separated by rhizomes (underground shoots). It usually grows in woods. It is growing through the Springy Turf-moss. on the Kerb, you just may be able to see the four patches of moss I had been photographing |
9. Finally in a plant pot there was some type of Bryum Thread-moss - It could well be the Common Thread-moss Bryum capillare but I have it in a packet and may, just may, one day get round to looking at it.
The children may only remember one or two names of the grasses. But I hope they will remember that there are lots of species of grass, and that they found as many types of grass in each plot as they did herbs.
More to come on earthworms later...
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| Anthoxanthum odoratum Sweet Vernal-grass and Ox-eye daisy |
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