Ash Die-Back update

According to new research by University of Essex, the Ash disease may spread more quickly and affect more trees than expected. Even worse, it is possible the fungus may evolve to attack other species such as Privet, Lilac and other members of the Oleaceae family.

Read why here https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/uoe-nwo102716.php

Colden Valley

In the Colden Valley today I walked through the short section that is mainly mature Beech trees. As a contrast to the surrounding mixed woodland it is very attractive. I noticed that a couple of the old trees were suffering badly from bleeding canker, Phytophthora, but not determinable to species without laboratory testing. Many Beech throughout the Calder Valley are dying from the effects of bleeding canker.

                                   Colden Valley Beech trees

                               Bleeding Canker killing the tree

 

                                Another nearby with same disease

 

 

 Porcelain fungus - Oudemansiella mucida, specific to Beech woods

 

 

 

Sycamore cut down but still on its two feet

 

 

 And sending out new growth. Supported sapwood is all it needs to keep character in the woodland.

 

 

 

Ancient Oak Tree

This post, although not about a Calder Valley tree, has relevance to our attitudes to ancient trees.

Whilst travelling on holiday, I prefer to meander down the by-ways and try and see what remains of the countryside. On this occasion there was a rare WOW! moment. At a junction of two quiet lanes there it was, a massive ancient Oak tree that is "well over 400 years old", according to the linked website here http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4154805

My photos show a recent large stone inscribed 'Vernons Oak', which must have cost a fortune to quarry and inscribe with gold lettering. I prefer the Gothic Scripted notice board which you can see on Google Street View here:- https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9233718,-1.7732217,3a,90y,310.1h,77.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7SJ3qUyLuudohp-wUG6pqw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1.

It is very rare for any ancient tree to be marked on a map or have any sign on the ground. Most are 'just there', unrecognised for what they are. Sometimes better for it as 'attention' can often be fatal.

Highways, in their usual casual indifference, have recognised the significance of this rare tree by putting a drunken road sign in front of it.

Someone nearby seems to have a penchant for mowing all the adjacent verge like a lawn. Ancient Trees don't need mowing. As most tree roots are near the surface a dry hot summer can create desert conditions where there is no long grass to keep the soil cool and moist.

According to the link, it is "One of the Counties most celebrated trees". Yet, as you can see from my photos, the tree is struggling to survive. It is surely not a co-incidence the decaying rear of the tree is shaded by the overtopping young Beech trees. If nothing is done, Vernons Oak may well be relegated to the archive as "One of the Counties lost celebrated trees".

Wildlife welcome in Halifax Town Centre

We were informed at a meeting today that the swift boxes we were promised to accommodate them in Halifax's New Central Library have been built into the top roof-edge. 

Also bat boxes in the refurbished Piece Hall. 

Thanks to CMBC managers Carole Knowles, Andrew Pitts and David Garner for taking up my suggestion for the swifts, an idea that came from Leeds Council via Dave Sutcliffe.

Another tree disease to worry about

Following the Ash Die-Back disease, there is another that affects Oak trees that is just as worrying. It has nothing to do with 'Sudden Oak Death' (Ramorum), which as far as we are concerned should be known as 'Sudden Beech Death'.

Confusingly, this new disease is called Sudden Oak Decline and is affecting many trees in the South and East of England. The Forestry Commission say this new condition has the ability to affect the landscape in the UK as much as Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970's.

There is a lot of money and research being put into finding the cause of this Oak decline (affected trees can die within 5 years). This photo of a notice board at Burghley Park explains it well. Also this link has good info and a video http://www.forestry.gov.uk/acuteoakdecline

The board was impossible to read as it was covered in dirt but a wipe with tissues soaked in pop did wonders.

A rare and spectacular bird ! Hoopoe at Cottonstones.

A resident photographed a Hoopoe in her garden and kindly contacted Dave Sutcliffe to let the birders know on the text grapevine. She also posted some pics on the Calderbirds.blogspot site. (Toggle above.)

Strangely enough, a rare Woodchat Shrike also turned up near there last year.

The Annual Report for 2015 from the Halifax Birdwatchers Club, edited by Nick Dawtrey, is available now at Woodlesford Newsagent, Pellon Lane, (high up the lane on the right.) Price £5.00.

Other rarities could have arrived in Calderdale, as we have had a long period of easterlies right at the height of migration.

Fungus Foray this Sunday 9th October

Meet us at Shaw Park car park, Holywell Green. Go down Station Rd. and turn right into the car park.
Peachysteve is the expert and he will be leading. Meet 10.30 for 10.40 and bring something to eat when we all sit down together for our picnic lunch.

Last year we discovered, as well as many other notable finds, two clumps of the very rare and beautiful Violet Coral. (Inedible.) Previously recorded at only one other site near Hebden Bridge.

Toads and other Amphibians

Lots on BBC R4 this morning about the plight of toads inc the concept of toad tunnels under roads and how they DO work. Also the fact that roads can actually become dangerously slippy for traffic when large numbers get squashed.

We should push for amphibian tunnels e.g. under the new road at Copley while the builders are still in.

It will be next March when toad patrols start again. Ask for a good torch for your Christmas present if you want to get involved. Volunteers are needed at Sowerby, Brighouse, Todmorden, Hardcastle Crags, etc.

Ash Die-Back (Chalara fraxinea) but name now changed to Hymenoscyphus fraxineus

Ash Die-Back disease seems now to have established over a wide area of Park woodland and other areas in Todmorden.

It is mainly visible on saplings a few years old, where the upper leaves have died and gone black and drooping like an umbrella; the upper stems looking blotchy and either dead or discoloured. On some, just the side branches have died and the fungi then spreads both up and down the stem, creating characteristic diamond shaped lesions on the bark.

The asexual stage attacks the bark and encircles twigs and branches, cutting off sap flow. The sexual stage grows during Summer on the previous years fallen leaves and spreads the spores.

The disease is easy to spot at the moment as it stands out amongst otherwise green and healthy ash saplings. It would be interesting to know if anyone has seen signs of the disease from elsewhere in the valley, although there is little that can be done to prevent the spread.

I have seen mature trees affected the otherside of Whalley so expect more signs next year.

Forestry Commission don't visit to confirm as the disease is now so widespread.

                                  Diamond shaped stem lesions

This month's talk and indoor meeting

All welcome to this excellent talk. It will be one of the last before we move when the Central Library closes and we move (hopefully) to the New Central Library next to Square Chapel, near the railway station.

So come along and if you have never been yet, see what impressive rooms we've been operating from since we moved down from the previous Central Library at Lister Lane in 1984. 

It could also be a last chance to see our library, started in 1874, all in one place.

(That is the Scientific Society's own library.)

Fungi

Saw this fungi at base of a Turkey Oak tree today. I am guessing it is Pholiota squarrosa -- Shaggy Scaly Cap -- but can anyone confirm this?

Free survey training : Buds, Berries and Leaves

Friday 14th Oct at

Jerusalem Farm, Booth 10.30 am - 3.00 pm

Learn the skills to undertake upland plant surveys

Help track effects of climate change

Indoor presentation

Outdoor session to practice survey method

Book your free place / find out more: www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/community-science/events

Ancient Trees and fungi

Just been on the Ancient Tree Forum meet at Lowther Park, looking at the landscape which still retains the banking on which would have stood the Park Pale of 1283. Lovely trees, centuries old, and much wood-pasture being re-created.

Wood Pasture is thought now to have made up much of the English landscape in the time before man had a great influence on it. The traditional idea of squirrels being able to jump from Lands End to John O' Groats without touching the ground is a myth, although modern tree planting seems to be trying its best to rewrite history.

Fungi are the driving force behind trees, some even say that trees are merely a support system for fungi! It seems that many fungi are latent within trees for decades and co-exist happily. Slight changes to the tree's environment, or such a thing as branch loss, can stimulate them to 'wake up'. Often when we see fungi erupting on trees, they haven't 'entered the tree' through branch wounds but are actually finding their way out in order to spore. Co-existence with fungi is the norm for a tree.

If you can get this link it suggests that fungi micorrhizae are capitalists and compete with each other to corner the market in storing nitrogen, keeping trees short of the stuff and only releasing it in exchange for Carbon. It's a jungle down there, if you will forgive the pun!

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/20140521-fungi.html


                                           The Lowther Oak

Autumn Crocus

In the Eden Valley at the village of Morland were these Autumn Crocus growing by the river. Not sure of their origin but it is a very old village as you can read on the Church history plaque.

Crocus Sweep this Sunday 2nd October.

All members and friends are invited on a tour of  some of the Autumn Crocus sites probably in the Ryburn Valley. Provisional time 1.30pm ; meet at County Bridge over the Calder in Sowerby Bridge.

We could get into as few cars as possible. Some of the footpaths are rocky but no strenuous climbs involved. Childeren and dogs very welcome. Tour about three hours. Check again here in case I have to alter arrangements.

(These are Crocus nudiflorus I photographed in the Pyrenees, and this is the one we have in the fields and woods in Calderdale in about 40 places that we know of.)

Burning at Walshaw

New Durham University study finds ANY burning on Walshaw Moor Estate increases flood risk in Hebden Bridge | Upper Calder Valley Plain Speaker.

http://www.energyroyd.org.uk/archives/15838

Saturday September 24th

The Annual Autumn Crocus walk will take place tomorrow the 24th.

Meet at 10:30 at School Lane top, easy parking. Or meet at Bradshaw Church at 10:45, also easy parking, for a gentle 3 mile walk. Bring some lunch and drink.  See previous post below. All welcome. Dogs on lead please.

Saturday 24th of September. Autumn Crocus Walk

Autumn Crocus Walk. Saturday 24th of September 2016
We made a quick visit to one of the sites in Bradshaw prior to next Saturday's walk. Bradshaw Church grounds have approx 200 blooms.
Lets hope that they are still fresh next Saturday.
Meet Bruce at School Lane top at 10:30 or Bradshaw Church car park at 10:45 for a 3 mile stroll up to Ogden and down to Holmfield for more Autumn Crocus.

A  few of the blooms at Bradshaw Church 18/9/2016

Report: We had a brilliant walk, with 8 of us involved. There were about 200 blooms in Bradshaw Church yard, under the east boundary wall. There were about 150 blooms in the bottom of the valley beside the hollow Sycamore with the hole right through its trunk, and there was a good count of 58 ( gaining year on year,) beside the beck at Oats Royd, where the ponds are.  We ate our lunch beneath the trees at Ogden Water, explored the top of Soil Hill, viewing from there north to the hills in the Dales, and east to the white horse at Kilburn, over the other side of the Vale of York. Our mid-afternoon break and snacks were taken looking out over one of the Oats Royd ponds. 

A new observation of the plant is that, though I said in my booklet "The Mystery of the Autumn Crocus" (still available) that I had never seen the plant set seed in Calderdale, I can now prove that they do occasionally do this, as a capsule with seeds appeared in a pot in my garden this spring 2016. (I have some under observation in a pot after digging them with permission from a site on private land, out of sight of the public.) Steve.

Rishworth Moor

Today I refound cranberry growing on White Isles, just north of the trig' point on Dog Hill.  I first found this about 15 years ago, but it was in flower then.
Also a red admiral was enjoying the sun near Parrock Nook Independent Union Chapel (sadly closed for good as a church on the 2nd September 2016, a pinned up note outside said).

Regards, Chris

Wasps and Bees

I have never seen as many wasps in mid-September as this year. All our cars on the avenue have been covered in them for the last week or so, attracted no doubt by the honeydew from the adjacent Lime Trees. They are quite tame and unaggressive and seem a little undernourished. It won't be long now before they are all gone for this year. I feel quite sorry for them.

Grasses are wind pollinated and don't produce nectar, so you don't associate bees with them. Yet today I saw dozens of small bees busily collecting pollen from the many flowering stems of Purple Moor Grass in our garden. They were excitedly landing on the delicate flowering heads, causing them to bounce up and down with the bees' slender weight. I have never seen this behaviour before and wonder if vast acreage of the uplands with Purple Moor grass are feeding the bees?

Our monthly talk open to all this Tuesday, but before that a hike this Saturday 10th September. (See below.)

The walk on 10th September is programmed as a hike; it's about 7 miles round. We follow paths up one side of the three Walshaw Dean Reservoirs, and back down the other side. We found we had to push through tall bracken last year for about 100 yards at the top end of the top dam, but we were on a permissive footpath. We will sit for a while to eat packed lunches on a convenient low wall, and should be back to the cars by mid afternoon.

There are, apart from the wide views and possible wildlife encounters ( including Marsh Harrier and hundreds of froglets and toadlets last year,) visible signs of the miniature railway that was used during the reservoir construction. Eyewitness accounts can be read in the famous local book "A Springtime Saunter" by Whiteley Turner, including these vivid descriptions of sounds he leaves us from 1905. . . ."awakened by the roaring of some terrible monsters fighting" .  . . looking out of the bedroom window they see. . ."the engines puff and snort in their efforts to proceed". (The writer and his companion lodged at a farm near Blake Dean, which is still there.)

THE WALK - the event went well, with seven people taking part. The only drawback to the proceedings was the hordes of midges that came when we sat down for our picnic. As we ate our sandwiches, they tried to eat us! Annie's insect repellent was effective, except she had to supply all of the rest of us (all blokes ! typical ) and she ran out ! Even though the spray stopped them biting, they still crawled on any bare skin they could find. We could see a gamekeeper grass trimming round shooting butts. He had come prepared with a net over his head; his peaked cap keeping it away from his face.

The find of the month was a clubmoss! This was identified later by Peachysteve as Fir Clubmoss, Huperzia selago.  This is known from only one other small patch in Calderdale, at Ovenden Moor Windfarm, where, amazingly, it grows along with a second species of clubmoss. 

THE TALK - Malcolm brought us a very interesting and entertaining talk with good clear images on the screen, expertly arranged and labelled. A slight correction re the poster is that he is mainly with the Mid-Yorkshire Fungus Group, though also active in the YNU. 

Take note of the Old Beech

Our valley was planted in the early 19th century with Beech trees, a species which would have been a novel species for our area at that time. They have been a remarkably resilient tree, surviving through a century and a half of terrific pollution.

But; All the original Beech are now approaching 180-200 year old and entering their final years. In 20 years time most of the big trees will have gone. They do not grow downwards in old age as Oak does; for when they decide time is up, they don't linger.

We should not help these old Beech on their way by removing them for woodland management purposes, where the emphasis now is to encourage other species such as Oak.

I think we should enjoy them while we can and leave the best specimens well alone in any management scheme. We will never see again as many massive Beech as we have at present.

Better by far to concentrate on the prolific number of Beech saplings which are insidiously springing up as under storey in many woodlands. This is a problem that is easily solved at present but if neglected will kill the ground flora and most of the other tree species in the wooded area.

Get out and enjoy, photograph and record these huge Beech; they won't be around for much longer.

The photo shows a multi-stemmed huge Beech on the HSS walk to Sun Wood in June this year. But also note the bleeding canker which is affecting Beech throughout the valley. This is quickly hastening the end for many of them as the fungus like organism cuts off the flow of sapwood.

Also note the arborglyphs written in the central trunk. Was this a boundary tree, coppiced or was it bundle planted?

Frogs

Our garden is literally hopping with this year's tiny frogs, but can anyone tell me how to judge the age of older frogs (we have just one in the garden) like the one in this picture?  Is it 1 year old - or 10?  I'd love to know!  Charlotte

Siver Y moths arrived

Five of us were on Wadsworth Moor yesterday and we saw at least three Silver Y moths feeding on the heather nectar.

Snake evidence in Luddenden

A member of the public contacted me after finding this skin of a small snake which had been sloughed inside a lidded barbecue. They have to find somewhere rough to rub their mouth, to start the skin peeling back, then they crawl out of it, leaving it behind, often intact, and turned inside out.

The young father was concerned it might be an Adder near his garden. I could reassure him after checking with a hand lens that it wasn't an Adder. Also, unfortunately for us naturalists, it wasn't a Grass Snake either. Both these native snakes have a central keel on each small dorsal scale, which shows easily on the slough, but this snake didn't have this feature. The keel is a raised line like the keel underneath a wooden boat.

So it's most likely an escaped exotic pet. The only chance it could be a native snake is if someone has picked up a Smooth Snake on one of the few southern county heathlands they live on, and brought it home. (This would be a wildlife crime, as you need a license to handle Smooth Snakes - which don't have a keel on their dorsal scales.)       Reference: ARC Reptile ID Guide (online.)