Foxhill Farm: late April

With plenty of leisure time available I had a good stroll around Foxhill Farm today, but first made a slight detour, visiting Yeomanry Way to photograph an oak apple I had seen yesterday.


Many people seem to confuse this species with the much smaller Oak Marble Gall. The true Oak Apple is the work of a cynipid wasp, Biorhiza pallida (the oak marble gall is caused by Biorhiza kollari). The real oak apple is pale, soft (when young), spongy and can grow to the size of a golf ball.

Oak Apple. Yeomanry Way, Daventry.

22 April, 2020

Foxhill Farm is not the place to visit for a marvellous display of wild flowers, but there were some attractive species to be seen, and there will be more later on in the year.

Crab apple blossom, Newnham Road, beside Foxhill Farm.

22 April, 2020

Crab apples were in blossom near to the entrance and there were swathes of Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea, and Red Campion where nibbling sheep couldn't reach. 

Stitchwort generally grew behind barbed wire fencing beyond the reach

of sheep. Foxhill Farm, Badby. 22 April, 2020

Bluebells are common in this part of Northamptonshire but I saw none today. Instead the commonest blue flowers were those of Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea. This is an excellent bee-plant but again none paid a visit today - very worrying.

The flowers of ground ivy received no visitors whilst I was there today.
Foxhill Farm, 22 April, 2020

Forget-me-nots were frequent too but the glory at the moment are the bushes of Gorse, Ulex europaeus, which formed golden patches on the hillsides. Gorse will carry flowers in all twelve months of the year but currently they are at their best.

Forget-me-nots, like stitchwort, were often behind barbed wire fencing.

Foxhill Farm, Badby, Northants. 22 April, 2020

These gorse bushes are indicative of the slightly acid and well-drained nature of the soil. They are impenetrable by sheep and so the occasional tree seedling can grow up safely in their protective thickets.

The air was heavy with the honeyed smell of gorse.

Foxhill Farm, 22 April, 2020

The gorse merits more attention for the insects and spiders which can be abundant but for today I contented myself with photographing a Gorse Shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus. There are structural reasons why this bug is placed in a separate genus from, say, Palomena prasina, but it the field the reddish antennae and the distinctive yellow border around the abdomen make it reasonably easy to recognise. The olive green body closely resembles a gorse flower bud. It is not a particularly common visitor to gardens but I have found it on laburnum and broom.

Gorse Shieldbugs are large but can be surprisingly difficult to spot.

Just prior to leaving I examined a decaying tree stump and, child-like, poked a couple of small puff-balls growing there, creating a smoke-like cloud of spores. They were specimens of Lycoperdon pyriforme and, unsurprisingly, this species is known as the Stump Puffball.


Stump Puffballs were found - where else? - on an old stump.

Foxhill Farm, 22 April, 2020

By this time the day had become remarkably hot for April and on returning to the car I found that the temperature was 21 degrees. Among the butterflies had been brimstones, peacocks, orange tips and holly blues. Buzzards had mewed overhead, magpies had cackled and the yaffle of the green woodpecker had mocked me as I went about my business. In terms of recording only one species, the Brassica Bug, had been added to the farm total, bringing it to 516. Nevertheless, a good day!