Exploring Worcester Woods

Nick Cripps

Autumn Colours

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER fans us with the fading embers of summer. Warmth lingers on keeping autumn at a distance. For wildlife it is a time of preparation and hording. The ground may be as dry as tinder, so beware the carelessly discarded cigarette!

TREES & SHRUBS

Along the wood edge Elder berries are ripening and now birds must compete with homemade wine makers for the berries! The dark-blue Blackthorn berries, called sloes, are ripe - ideal for flavouring sloe gin. Also maturing are the small black berries of the Privet which, if not eaten by birds, can be used in the making of a crimson dye.

Both Hazel nuts and Oak acorns are beginning to ripen and fall. Oak trees only mature and produce acorns at about 65 years, so not every oak will bare fruit! Most hazel nuts are scavenged by squirrels before they can be collected for human consumption. The younger squirrels are busy playing or marking out territories. Like domestic cats they deliberately spray and scent the trees.

White Bryony is a climber with very strong tendrils. Its clustered berries, which are poisonous, gradually mature and change colour from green, to orange, to red, in a traffic-light effect!

BIRDS

April was the month of arrivals: September is the month of departures. The departing warblers are out searching for insects and berries, so now is the best time to see them, although they are rather quiet! Look to the open areas for parties of Goldfinches and Linnets particularly where thistles and dandelions grow.

In September departing birds are principally concerned with putting on weight for their journey to Africa. Seek out an elderberry bush on the wood edge and you may find a collection of warblers, tits, and thrushes all feeding together.

BUTTERFLIES

Butterfly numbers quickly dwindle as the cooler weather takes hold. Still to be seen are the Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood and Painted Lady. The Red Admiral too, can be very conspicuous during the sunny breaks in the weather, often seen feeding from the fermenting crab apples that litter the woodland paths.

DRAGONFLIES

Many dragonfly species fly well into September. The Common Blue Damselfly and Blue-tailed Damselfly, as well as the three hawker dragonflies, the Southern, Brown and Migrant are about the pools. The orange-yellow Common Darter will be egg laying during September. To achieve this both male and female dragonflies take to the air and hover over pondweed. Coupled together in a tandem formation they jointly lay the eggs.

FUNGI

The start of the mushroom season is impossible to predict. A long dry summer with little rain delays fungal growth, whilst prolonged rain and damp conditions can make it an ideal time for fungal forays.

The Fly Agaric is the large, red-capped mushroom, on which fairy tale gnomes traditionally sit! The Fly agaric is probably the largest mushroom in the woods with a cap 10-20cm across. It is highly poisonous and strongly hallucinogenic.

The bright-yellow Sulphur Tuft mushroom grows in large clumps and is often the first mushroom to be seen in the autumn. It takes advantage of fallen, decaying oak branches, it also has an affinity for wood-chip piles. Sadly it’s not edible.

Honey Fungus, also called bootlace fungus, has two distinct phases of growth. Initially growing as a fish net-like structure, it threads its way underneath the bark of the silver birch. This strangles the tree. The honey fungus mushroom then develops in clumps usually at the base of the dying tree. The fungus is extremely variable in size and hue.

The Red-crack Boletus has a deep-red cap which blends perfectly with the leaf-litter floor. Often the mushroom suffers from a secondary fungal attack which leaves it bleach-white - and easy to spot! It is a mushroom favoured by squirrels, who leave piles of gnawed out boletus caps inside the wood.

The Birch Bracket also associates with dead birch trees. The bracket fungus is saucer-shaped and blisters outwards from the tree’s trunk. Initially white in colour, its upper surface gradually turns a soft-scaly-brown. Most fungi last only a few days, brackets in contrast, are tough, hardy growths which remain throughout the year. In the past the birch bracket was used by barbers as a razor strop!

The trunks of older oak trees can play host to the Beefsteak Fungus. Initially the surface of the beefsteak is very viscous and unappetising. But with age it becomes edible when its tannin-rich, viscous surface has dried away.

Mushroom pickers please beware! The DEADLY poisonous Death Cap has occasionally been found growing in Nunnery Wood. The mushroom is robust and stands about 12 cm high. It has a white stalk and olive green cap, which gradually whitens with time. Do not attempt to pick the Death Cap and always wash your hands carefully after any fungal foray inside the woods.

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