Wythop Woods in Autumn

 

One of the great joys of Autumn is a walk in the woods. On a fine October morning, what can be better than to immerse yourself in the shades of yellow,red, brown and green and the earthy scent of a mixed woodland. Probe around in the moss at the base of a tree and you'll find a host of fascinating fungi. Last Autumn, when we visited Loweswater, I showed you the three main types of fungi that you are likely to come across, the Agarics, Boletes and Brackets. Wythop Woods, at the northern end of Bassenthwaite, has all three, but is particularly rich in Boletes. These tend to be large mushrooms with chunky stems and the underside of the cap is sponge-like as opposed to having gills like the agarics. None of them are deadly and some are really good to eat, so they are a good group to study. I only found Slippery Jacks and Dyeballs (Boletes have fabulous names) whilst I was living in Crete, so most of the British Boletes are new to me.

The Good, The Bad and The Edible

You're probably all familiar with these little pink flowers which grow in great profusion in temperate climes. This particular one is Herb-Robert, named after an 11^th century French Abbot, herbalist and, post-mortem, saint. The majority of flowers in this family are either Cranesbills (Geranium) or Storksbills (Erodium) (Herb-Robert is a Cranesbill). The Geraniums in your garden are actually Pelargoniums (Pelargonium) which, although in the same family, naturally occur in warm temperate or tropical regions of the world.

Herb-Robert is not an edible plant but neither is it poisonous. The reason that it is inedible is that it doesn't taste very nice – not only to us, but also to rabbits and deer apparently. Gardeners have reported that allowing Herb-Robert to grow amongst their veg prevents rabbits and deer from munching on their prize exhibits. Mediaeval herbalists made many claims for its healing properties but modern research has discovered that the leaves can reduce blood sugar levels, so it may come into play in diabetes medications.

As we climb up through the trees we get tantalizing views of the lake below us. A few birds are flitting around, and I can hear a pair of ravens cronking above us, but the only bird that is sitting and posing for a photograph is our friend, the Robin (and I still swear that Ishbel keeps one in her pocket just to keep me happy when the other birds are playing hide-and-seek).

The lack of photogenic birds suddenly pales into insignificance as a Red Squirrel darts up a nearby pine tree. It's great to see one in its natural habitat as they've been driven out of much of England by the introduced Grey Squirrel. The map on the right shows their distribution as recorded by the British Mammals census of 2018.

And now... a bit of a moan about air pollution in Cumbria and a plea to those who are causing it – cyclists! We have some lovely routes around the county which are great for cycling, but they are rather narrow and twisting. Bicycles, in themselves, don't cause any pollution of course, but while you're cycling along, enjoying the scenery and chatting to your mate, the thirty or so cars crawling along at 15mph behind you are belching out exhaust fumes. So, please ride in single file and pull in to one of the many passing spaces to chat, admire the scenery and let the crocodile pass. Thanks.

All the best

Steve

PS There will be no blog for the next couple of weeks as we're off to Crete. See you when we get back.

I hate to remind you, but Christmas is coming. Books make great Christmas presents (and if you order now, you can read them before you wrap them!). The Quick Guide to Creepy-Crawlies, in particular, is ideal for children of all ages, giving them all the stuff they need to know about the world of minibeasts (and maybe giving them a new lifetime interest).

Steve's Books

Clicking on any title below will take you to the relevant Amazon page where you can read the first few pages, then click to buy if you so desire.

Chubby's Crematorium & Burger Bar A book of humorous poems to cheer, amuse and entertain your friends with.
The Quick Guide to Creepy-Crawlies All you need to know to identify any type of insect, spider, worm or snail very simply and find out more about it. Yvonne: This was a gift for a family so that the children can understand what they see on days out. The second was for me. Logical and easy to use. If you know anyone who likes nature you can be confident that gifting this book will give years of pleasure.
The Eggs of Saramova A science fiction novella for those who don't like science fiction. A fast-paced thriller that is, literally, out of this world (and it starts right here in Crete). Too new for reviews yet!
Not Just For Twisted Women by Steve Daniels  A light-hearted look at life through the eyes of the fairer sex. Janet: If you are short on time but enjoy reading and are maybe not into long extended novels then Not Just For... Twisted Women provides readers with concise stories that stand alone and most certainly entertain with their ultimate twists. Loved it. Helen: A very good read! Well written and entertaining! Margaret: Each quick tale gives a glimpse into a character's life and has an often humorous twist at the end. I would love to read more. Yvonne: These days many people find it hard to find the time to read a novel, so this book of short stories is ideal to dip into. It is also makes a good gift.

2O2O Vision

The Crete Nature Blog is back... but with a difference. It may not always be coming from Crete. So maybe it should be renamed The Crete Plus Nature Blog. Life is a-changing for me at the moment and this coming year is going to be a bit of an adventure, mainly because I haven't got a clue what's in store but I have a feeling that there may be some dramatic and abrupt changes. Watch this space!

But what better way to start the year than a walk in the English countryside on a bright and frosty morning?

This is Wordsworth country; Cockermouth in Cumbria and along the roadside verges a 'host of golden daffodils' are showing their first shoots through the frozen soil ready to burst forth in the first days of Spring.

The trees that will bring a shady green canopy against the hot summer sun show intricate patterns of denuded branches against a Forget-Me-Not sky.

This far north, 54.7°, the morning sun is very low in the sky and illuminates the moss on this branch overhanging Bitter Beck at an oblique angle.

Whereas here, in this little copse the sunlight hardly penetrates at all and eldritch faces grin down from the sylvan gloom.

But let us return now to a warm fire and a hot cup of tea and pause a while en route to look at two of the symbols of the Yuletide just passed. The holly in full berry sustaining the birds through the rest of the winter. They prefer sweeter berries but blackbirds, waxwings, thrushes and robins will all partake.

And talking of the Robin, a more recent symbol of Christmas as opposed to Yule, here is one perching in somebody's front garden.

The daffodils, the trees, the birds and even the hot cup of tea that we are going home to drink wouldn't be here without the insects and their allies. So this year let us look after our creepy-crawlies, as they have been looking after us throughout our entire existence. If they go, we go. It's as simple as that and what better way to start than getting to know a little bit about the magnificent world of the very small? A complete overview of this often overlooked but vital part of our lives can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1694436756

Crete Nature Catch-up

Series 1 - Welcome to Lasithi

Series 2 - The Rhythm Of Life

Series 3 - A Journey Begins

Series 4 - The Milonas Valley

Series 5 - This Is Ferma

Series 6 - Upland Villages

Series 7 - The Forty saints

Series 8 - Sunday Strolls

Series 9 -Stormy Weather
Series 1O - The Grand Tour

Trick Topography

Water Treader,  Mesoveliidae

Here we are again, happy as can be and ready to explore the Eden valley beyond the bounds of civilisation. Crossing the little stone aqueduct once more and I see that we have some water in our stream bed at last. Let’s see if we can delve in and find anyone at home. Not exactly humming with life, I don’t suppose that it’s had time to get established yet, but here’s one curious little creature. It’s only a couple of millimetres long and we can’t get a very good resolution picture of it with the equipment at hand but we may be able to tell something about it. It’s obviously aquatic, or leastways semi-aquatic and six legged (I think I can just make out the forelegs under the head) and he has rather large eyes and long jointed antennae. Given all of that and his general shape I would hazard a guess that he’s a Water Treader. They’re scavengers that you can often find on plant matter in still-ish fresh water or generally moist habitats and he certainly won’t be happy when the rains come but I dare say he’ll find some quiet backwater in which to continue his existence.

Robin, Erithacus and Blackbird egg

This is getting rather dense along here and I didn’t bring machetes so I think we’d better try our luck further up the bank through those pines up there. Although it is somewhat dark and gloomy down here in the depths it is certainly a treat for the ears with the soft gurgle of the stream tumbling over rocks, various bird calls and there’s a Robin singing his heart out up there which has been following us for the last half mile or so.  Now this is a little odd, it looks to be a broken blackbird’s egg. The eggs tend to be paler and bluer than their more northerly counterparts but even so, this one looks rather washed out. Could be that it’s been lying here undisturbed since April or May when the local blackbirds usually breed although I believe that even the more northerly birds continue breeding until July. They may breed even later this far south of course but I’d have thought that November was stretching it a bit.

It looks as though we’ll have to cross the stream again at this point as the vegetation is getting insufferably dense. In fact I don’t think we’re going to get much further down here. Let’s see if we can scramble up out of the depths and find a track. It doesn’t seem like much of a climb to the top. 

That was more of a climb than I thought and two things are self evident. Firstly, there is no track and secondly, this is not the ridge. The real ridge was hidden from us by the slope of the hill and is as far above us as the valley is below. Ah well, onwards and upwards – at least the gradient isn’t so steep.

Now this really isn’t playing the game. Another false ridge and still no sign of a track. At this point I’d settle for one heading back to the road. Remember those old geography lessons at school where we were told that valleys were either V shaped or U shaped depending upon whether they were made by water or ice? I don’t remember being told about seagull winged shaped valleys with ever receding horizons. There’s nothing for it, we’ll just have to keep going. There are a few hundred feet below us and a few hundred feet above us. Ah well, nice morning for it, gird your loins and up we go again.

Small Copper, Lycaena

Only another hundred feet to go… unless this is a further bit of trick topography and there’s yet another ridge beyond. I think we’ll just rest here awhile in the shade of these pines as the sun is beginning to beat down upon us with a bit more intensity than is strictly necessary in November. Oh look, a Small Copper butterfly seems to be enjoying it, I don’t think that we’ve met one of these on our travels so far. These are from the same family as the blues that we were discussing up on the Katharo Plain a few weeks back. I mentioned then that not all of the blues (as the Lycaenidae family used to be known) were blue. Well this is one of the brown ones. The family is now known as the Gossamer Winged Butterflies but even that, I feel, is stretching the description of gossamer a little bit. Wee Bitty Flitty Butterflies might me more apt. Come on then – up we go again.

Toxic Mushroom, Amanita

Told you there would be a track didn’t I? Wasn’t that climb worth it for such a wonderful view of the valley so far? Don’t look at me like that – it was only a two hour climb and there’s a lovely mushroom growing by the side of the track that we can take back to identify; potentially deadly by the look of those white gills. Where’s the car? You see that little speck down there by the roadside… There’s one other little thing I think that I ought to mention – I know this track and it doesn’t lead back to the village. That is, not the village where we’ve parked the car but it does lead back to our base camp at Ferma so we can pop home, have a spot of lunch and pick up the car later. How far? About eight kilometres.

Now, now, don’t be silly. Put that rock down!

Until next week – happy hunting – no, not me, gerroff!!!

I am indebted to my neighbour Maria who came looking for me after I’d been gone for five and a half hours on a three hour walk and picked me up 200 metres from my front gate and also to Sam in the next village who came over in the afternoon and drove me back to Agia Fotia to pick up the car. Thank you both very much.

See all the pictures including insets in detail on Flickr

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)