DO YOU KNOW?

We're into a new month but there are pictures I don't want to leave behind - pictures of things I like or find interesting but don't quite know what they are.

This beetle, for instance. I think I know roughly it's of the Geotrupes genus - but I'll never know its name exactly. I understand some beetles in this group can be better identified when upside down but even if I were to rummage around in the leaf litter of the New Forest (Hampshire) how would I ever recognise it again? After all, there's only one Alexander Beetle. (Isnt't there?)

This one is about half an inch long and since I don't know what to call it (assuming it isn't Alexander) I'll name it Beetle of the Waving Hands. (See the end of its antennae?)

Then there are.lichens. These were growing huddled against each other on a fallen branch (again in the New Forest). 

Lichen 1 Pale and Feathery.

(Late addition to text - iSpot ID - this lichen could be Evernia prunastri.)

Lichen 2 Pale and Lumpy-flakey.

I know where I saw them but nothing more. Do you know their names?

And back in Dorset; I put a picture of this lichen on iSpot and it was identified as Cladonia polydactyla. But how do I know it's not Cladonia digitata?

Because I don't know how to tell, I'm going to call it Lichen with the Bloody Fingers.

I've had even less luck in finding out what these fungi below are. Both are tiny.

I'll call this the Ice-topped Toadstool. (It isn't really ice; just looks like it.)

These are even tinier. (About 4mm across?) I wouldn't have seen them had I not sat down with a flask of coffee to admire the view. They were in the shadow of a hedge but facing a huge drop and dip in the landscape. (Hence the view.) So are they in shelter or exposed? It depends on which direction you are looking! But, short of the Latin one, I'm stumped for a name. Any ideas?

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REMINDER

The May link box for Tree Following posts

will be on Wednesday.

(7th May)

It will open 7am UK time (I hope!)

and close 7pm UK time on Wednesday 14th.

(Also I hope. It works automatically but not necessarily precisely!)

Extra Links
Beetles of the Geotrupes genus - on the Bug Guide site.

Dung Beetle Page on the New Forest Explorers Guide site

Dor Beetle upside down on the Beetles Page on the 'Bugs and Weeds' site - a Nature Observer's Scrapbook
The poem about Alexander Beetle is from 'Now we are Six' by AA Milne. Here it is - unsung! (Called 'Forgiven' in the 'original'.)

Alan Silverside's Lichen Pages
Fungi Identification Guide - on the First Nature site.
Toadstools for Gardeners - On the RHS site
Beginners Guide to some of the Common Types of Fungi - in the Amanita Photo Library

The Loose and Leafy approach to naming plants and fungi - The New Linnaeus

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WALKING BACK FROM THE CASTLE

Fish, Gold and Black, swimming among the Elodea crispa plants
in the pond in Sandsfoot Castle Park in Dorset, England.
Thanks to Mark and Gaz at Alternative Eden for water plant ID.
January 11th 2013

When the Castle was done up a bit last year
(and made safe to go inside)
 mats with grass on were laid along the tops of the ruins.
I don't know why. (They're falling off now.)
January 11th 2013

You know the castle in the view? The view we're following? Soon I'll show you round. First, though, I'll set up the year. Not that I've got a good record on this. I say I'll do things then never get round to them. That, or they go wrong. I decide to see what will grow in a particular patch of ground - and the council mows it. I decide to photograph the leaves of a particular tree - and forget all about them until they've not only opened but have dropped off in the autumn. Nevertheless, there are some things which are fairly well embedded in my ordinary Loose and Leafy routine. It's reassuring when we get to January to find the world is still going round much the same - at least, bits of it are! You can't stop the seasons.

Geese on the water. Portland Harbour January 11th 2013.

There's a good account of brent geese on the RSPB site.

For close up drawing to help with ID, plus more info.

So, imagine you are in the grounds of the castle-in-the-view. You've looked at the fish and the weed in the pond. Now you go into the castle itself (it's very small, what remains of it) and walk through it to a little platform overhanging the rocks to see what you can see. There's a lot of noise. A flock of geese (brent geese?) is landing on the water. They set off together for a very quick paddle - you can see where the water is left disturbed in their wake. The herring gulls on the rocks ignore them.

Dessicated blackberries.

January 11th 2013

Then you potter along a bit to look at the elderberry clump we've been following.  The remains of dessicated blackberries still stick out from it over the path. For much of the year, these trees are little more than climbing frames for brambles and ivy.

January 11th 2013
For all that it's a bit odd to recommend a video
about something quite this static,
if you haven't seen the Natural History Museum clip about
lichens as pollution indicators,
click HERE for Xanthoria parietina The Movie!
(And more .)

The lichen on it is a brash and ghastly orange. When it's densely packed like this . . . I'm not sure it's entirely pleasant.

Common Orange Lichen - well named! But it changes its shades; yellow one way and green the other. Sometimes it's very green - but not today; which is surprising because I've always associated the green with damp weather (and there's been almost nothing but recently!)

Xanthoria parietina is an indicator of nitrogen in the atmosphere too. Near the sea, as this is, nitrogen is to be expected. (Sea birds contribute a lot!)

Common Orange Lichen
(Xanthoria parietina)
January 11th 2013

The first picture shows its real colour on January 11th 2013. This is the same photo with the colours changed a bit to emphasise their gradations. (So you notice the bits which are a bit greener. Sometimes, they are greener still.)

Elderberry.
January 11th 2013

The elderberry leaf shoot we've been following for more than a year (!) and which did hardly anything last summer . . . .  There's a new leaf where the old one was. It's got a sort of head-start in height this time round. Maybe it will one day become a branch? This appears to be a long term project!

Ivy Berries
January 11th 2013

The year before last, I followed ivy until its berries ripened but never showed you what happened when they opened and dropped their seeds - so we'll take up with ivy roughly where we stopped off before. For all that it's a common plant, its flowers, berries - even the shapes of its leaves - go much un-noticed. I suspect its seeds are even more of a mystery. (See the post for December 3rd 2011 -  Exploding Ivy and for January 13th 2012 - The Berries Mature.)

Cock's Foot Grass (Dactylis glomerata) January 11th 2013

Grasses - I'm thinking it might be a good idea to make more of a fuss of grasses this year. Grass isn't just grass it's . . . well, here's some flowering already.

And the view.

The view we're following - with Sandsfoot Castle and tree.
January 11th 2013

I'm a little fed up with this view. It never does much except sit there and be beautiful. And I daren't go back to the dent where the willows are to look at the rocks because the cliffs have been so washed by rain recently I'm worried they'll slip down and squash anyone who goes too close.

So I'll pretend I've been back, even though I haven't, and put in a picture I took there before . . .

December 18th 2013

Shells emerging from one of the rocks in the dent. Prehistoric cockles? (Anyone know?)

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January 11th 2013

Some tree followers have been rounding up their year with final posts about their particular tree. I'll soon do a round up of the round ups. Have you finished with your tree or will you be carrying on? Has it been interesting? Will you be choosing a new one?

This, as you can see, is the one in the foreground of my view. I'll be specially aware of it over the next few months because, by summer, it will be obscuring what's beyond - and, by then, the brent geese will have gone.

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Best wishes for 2013

I hope your year has got off to a good start.

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