August 15th – Also ripening in the hedgerows and waysides are a large variety of different rose hips in a range of shades and shapes. From cherry red and almost spherical to more oval and orange.
Again, these fruits will help sustain birds and other small animals into the winter and will be bright and beautiful in the late summer when traditionally the colour from flowers subsides.
August 14th – A tiring, very long day, but despite my weekend gloom (sometimes the IBS gets you like that) the weather is still very dry and warm – although not the sun-drenched heatwave of a couple of weeks ago, it’s still warm enough to ride with just a tee shirt and hopefully catch a little warmth on the skin.
The weekend’s small amount of rain clearly hasn’t been wasted: things suddenly look green anew – the canal at Clayhanger Bridge was as limpid and peaceful as ever, but the surrounding vegetation is greening up again. It looks… Fresher. Grass is sprouting again, and optimistic, opportunistic weeds and wildflowers are shooting up on the edgelands.
Looks like summer isn’t over after all…
August 2nd – A rushed day where I was dashing from one place to another at seemingly top speed with little time to take photos – but I did meet this lithe, classy grey fellow in Clayhanger, very unimpressed with my camera as I stopped to fuss him on my return from seeing a mate.
I’m not seeing so many cats about at the moment, which is a puzzle. But this fellow was splendid, if a little snooty…
August 1st – One of the less obvious food sources for smaller birds like goldfinches are the wind-borne seeds of dandelions, ragwort, thistle and here, rosebay willowherb. Growing like buddleia in any urban setting where there’s a scrap of extractable nutrition, this prolific weed has gorgeous pink flowers and produces huge amounts of fluff, containing its seeds.
Small birds will spend ages on seedbeds picking out the tiny black seeds and gorging upon them. It’s fascinating to watch, and these are an excellent source of nutrition.
Everything has a purpose in nature.
July 31st – One thing I am noticing this year is the huge fruit harvest. From blackberries to pears, from rowan berries to crab apples the hedgerows and woods this year are offering a wonderful bounty.
This crab apple tree near Clayhanger is burdened with a massive amount of apples that will sadly rot on the ground – not enough people making hedgerow jelly or wine these days I guess.
July 28th – The hazel hedge by the canal, between Silver Street pedestrian bridge and Coopers Bridge is heavy with nuts this year – clearly to the joy of the local squirrel population. Thankfully when I spotted these healthy specimens, they grey rodents hadn’t completely stripped the trees of their creamy bounty yet.
But they’re having a jolly good go, bless them.
Still can’t get into my head that w have fruiting hazels growing healthily on what used to be an open, festering refuse tip.
July 23rd – Saddly poor photo of something that caught me by surprise: A wayside pear tree in Clayhanger (I won’t say where) is fruiting very heavily this year, and despite the dry conditions, the fruit look like they’re going to be quite large.
Watching this one carefully, but expecting the crop to be decimated by birds (bless them) as it has been before.
July 19th – Spotted by the canal near Clayhanger, on a ragwort plant – their favourite food – a yellow and black striped cinnabar moth caterpillar, which seem to be having a good year this year.
These stripes fellows turn into beautiful black and red moths later in the season and are fascinating.
A nice find on a hot day.
July 19th – Following the canal breach a few weeks ago, that saw the local canals lose nearly a foot in level following a breach into a culvert beneath the waterway at Little Bloxwich, the repair has been effected and levels are back up to a healthy level now.
At Clayhanger, the low end of the overflow is now running well and it’s a fine sight and sound once more.
July 6th – Well, all week now I’ve been talking about the onset of the fruiting season, and here it is: The first blackberries are beginning to ripen near Clayhanger.
Not sure how good they’ll be though with the chronic lack of rainfall this summer: no chance to swell those lovely purple-black berries.
It’ll be interesting to see if the end crop is as early as it feels, and if the fruit are any good…
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 