Nature Notes February 2023

Nature Notes
The days are lengthening and Snowdrops are in flower: the end of winter is round the corner, we hope. On our walks we have been focussing on the small and insignificant. At the far end of Booton Common we came upon a Cream-spot Ladybird hibernating under a log and a bright pink crust fungus growing on a dead Hazel branch, but it was the trip to Buxton Heath which really surprised us. We were delighted to hear two Woodlarks singing against each other, establishing their territories for the coming breeding season. They nest early in the year and suitable heathland habitat is restricted, which is why they were singing on a dull day at the beginning of February.

We have become interested in lichens, very small ‘plants’ which are part fungus and part algae and hoped to find one or two species specific to heaths: we found nine that we could identify! We just hadn’t noticed them before. Some were exquisite grey-green cups, less than a centimetre high, with bright red spore-bearing bodies round the rim, others a tangle of grey ‘stems’ which were types of ‘Reindeer Moss’. Others, growing on trees, had miniscule ‘jam tart-like’ fruiting bodies in black or green or brown. A branch with what appeared to be a single species, under the hand lens, turned out to have two or three others alongside! The more closely we looked the more we saw. In the last twenty years or so, lichens have reappeared on trees where none had been seen for many years: this is due to the reduction in manufacturing in this country which produced acid rain killing the long lived lichens, although nitrogen enrichment from agriculture does also affect some species.

Lichens provided our ancestors with dyes for cloth production and were also used in medicine. It has now been proved that some produce chemicals with antibiotic properties, so they continue to be useful to man. That said, they are not only useful but beautiful and are also food for certain moth caterpillars and a microhabitat in themselves. Looking through the hand lens we saw a caterpillar, various beetle larvae and a nematode all going about their business amongst the leafy forest of the lichen covered twig. There is so much wildlife that we know nothing about unless we look very closely.

Do let me know if you see any interesting wildlife (rachel.42rr@btinternet.com)