Exploring Worcester Woods

Nick Cripps

Autumn Colours

OCTOBER

Autumn is slipping through our grasp. So in compensation October brings us a palette of colour: yellows, browns, wine-reds and crimson. The trees cling to their leaves but soon high winds and frost will spin them off into the quickening winter canvas.

TREES & SHRUBS

The woods are rich in berries, hips and haws. Birds, mice and voles are taking advantage and foraging. Hawthorn, blackthorn, privet and holly berries are all taken, so too, the hips of the dog rose. The hips are a rich source of vitamin C and can be made into an excellent jelly or syrup.

The Spindle Tree, an infrequent tree of the hedgerows, can be found along the southern edge of Warndon Wood. It yields small, lobed pink fruits, which although edible to the blackbird, are poisonous to man. The timber from the spindle tree, as its name suggests, was utilised by the wheelwright.

Ivy flowers in autumn, but with little colour. Its unspectacular yellow-green flowers eventually blacken into berries. Ivy is not a parasite but it does utilise neighbouring trees for support. In winter the ivy’s extra weight can weaken and topple smaller trees like the crab apple.

BIRDS

Farewell to our summer visitors, and hello to the Redwing and Fieldfare arriving to overwinter here. Like our resident thrush family members, the Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Blackbird, the redwing and fieldfare are omnivorous, feeding on hedgerow haws and invertebrates from the grassy areas. The two birds, nervous when they arrive, find their confidence grows as winter food gets scarcer.

Small groups of Siskins and Redpolls will fly the Park searching for alder and birch tree enclosures in which to feed. The Meadow Pipit, our other main visitor, forms into loose flocks. These stripy, brown birds favour the well-mown grassy areas and the edges of County Hall pools - as does the familiar Pied Wagtail.

Kestrels can be seen all year 'round hovering over the scrub looking for voles and mice. Watch at dawn or dusk for the rarer Barn Owl, Short-Eared Owl and Merlin. Also, these same scrubby areas produce small numbers of unexpected passage migrants such as Wheatears, Whinchats and Yellow Wagtails.

FUNGI

There are no hard-and-fast rules regarding mushroom identification or edibility - and using only colour as a guide is dangerous! Folklore says, that if you can peel the mushroom cap, then that mushroom is safe to eat - not true! Only experts should pick and eat woodland mushrooms. Not that many mushrooms are poisonous - most are just inedible or tasteless.

Field and Wood Mushrooms are common and similar in looks to the supermarket varieties. Many mushrooms if cut in half down the centre, will quickly oxidise and change colour. The stalk of the field mushroom if cut will gradually turn pink. Other mushrooms may stain crimson, blue or yellow depending on the species.

The impressive Shaggy Parasol is a saucer-sized, cream-coloured mushroom. Its cap is flecked with buff-brown scales, lending it a somewhat torn and ragged appearance. Quick-fry the parasol in garlic and butter for a real treat!

The ink cap family is well represented by the Shaggy Ink Cap, Common Ink Cap and Magpie Fungus. As these mushrooms decay, they turn into an inky black fluid - a process called deliquescence. In fact, until the turn of the century, writing ink was made from the mushrooms by boiling them in water with cloves.

Other easily identified woodland mushrooms are the poisonous Brown Roll-Rim, a frequenter of dried-up stream banks, the purple Amethyst Deceiver, and the Aniseed Toadstool, with its distinctive smell.

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