Village Walls

Most Northamptonshire settlements make use of local stone for many walls and other structures; Byfield is no exception and on a raw day, with a biting easterly wind, I avoided the open countryside and stuck to the village.

Limonite-streaked sandstone in a
Byfield wall. 21 February, 2013

Invariably the material used hereabouts is sandstone of Jurassic age, often streaked with iron oxide in the form of limonite. For most walls the stone is roughly dressed with a hammer and in this form is known as rubblestone. It may be more carefully dressed and even, as in the case of Byfield Manor House, given a smooth surface and, when closely jointed with little mortar, it is known as ashlar. (A better photograph of this fine building is featured in Diana Sutherland;'s excellent book, "Northamptonshire Stone".)

A neatly-dressed wall in Church
 Street, Byfield

Ashlar work,
The Manor House at Byfield

Fossils are common although few are undamaged. Belemnites are among the most frequent but their cephalopod relatives, ammonites, are only occasionally found: the only example I could find was on the wall of Kings Farthing, in Banbury Lane. 

Belemnite in wall.
Byfield, 21 February, 2013

Ammonite in the wall of Kings Farthing, Byfield

Aubretia in flower, Byfield. 18 February, 2013

The very sticky web of Amaurobius similis
Byfield.  21 February 2013

Walls are home to many organisms. Plants enjoy the limy mortar, particularly in rubblestone walls and Aubretia (Aubrieta deltoides) is already in flower. (My blog for 17 December, "Wall Plants", featured more of these.) Also occupying these crevices are spiders, with the grey web of Amaurobius similis being a familiar sight.

Some building stone in Byfield consists of
little but fossils

I am refraining from mentioning mosses and lichens, these deserving many blogs to themselves - from an expert.

Around the Village

Today I criss-crossed the village looking for signs of spring but, despite glorious sunshine, not a lot caught my attention. In the Pocket Park a surprising number of Sepsid flies (in this case Sepsis fulgens) were on the wing and a Blowfly basking on a leaf turned out to be Calliphora vicina. There was little to get excited about.

My walk took me down Westhorpe Lane, arguably the prettiest street in the village. On a grassy verge Crocuses were in flower and Iris reticulata provided a vivid splash of purple.

I was pleased to see our own native Privet, Ligustrum vulgare, in  a garden hedge. It had been left unclipped and was consequently bearing masses of its black fruit. They seem to have been eschewed by the local birds but in really harsh conditions I'm sure they'll prove acceptable. The flowers are very fragrant to the point of being almost sickly but I am fond of them. Not so beekeepers. I  am told that Privet honey is quite nauseous but it probably gets blended in with that of other flowers, so it is surely not a problem. The plant is a fairly good indicator of limy soils and is therefore not uncommon throughout Northants, particularly in the east. 

Inevitably John Clare had something to say on the subject:

White Dog-rose, woodbine and the
                              privet-spike
On the young gales their rural sweetness
                                                  teem.

Wild Privet, Ligustrum vulgare, in fruit.
Byfield.  19 February, 2013

Clare's Village Minstrel II, publ.1821

Over Solden Hill

The sunny conditions prevail, so yesterday I strode out to do a circular walk taking in Solden Hill (otherwise known as Farndon Hill) and West Farndon.

Byfield from the flanks of Solden Hill. 18 February, 2013

Garden Gnomes on Solden Hill. 18 February, 2013

Solden Hill is not particularly impressive and as I crossed the highest point I was only at 184 metres. Nevertheless, despite a hint of mist I was afforded a fine view of Byfield, its tall church spire framed by trees. A small clump of trees is home to a flourishing colony of Gnomus vulgaris subsp. hortensis (sometimes given specific status as Gnomus hortensis). The colony has grown over the years but breeding habits remain a mystery as no babies or juveniles have been found.

On this higher ground there was a chill wind. It was never troublesome but I was glad that the next stage of my walk was in the lee of a south-facing hedgerow. I continued heading east and gradually dropped down to the pretty hamlet of West Farndon (where is - or was - East Farndon?). In gardens the bird feeders were attracting large numbers of Goldfinches, with their tinkling calls; chaffinches were pinking and occasionally were moved into a rendering of their full song ending with a flourish. (I once taught a pupil whose surname was Pink. He was puzzled by this as, being Afro-Caribbean, it could hardly refer to his skin. I explained that 'pink' was simply an old name for a Chaffinch and therefore belonged with a group of surnames related to birds, such as Bunting, Wren, Crane, Finch and Raven. He seemed vaguely relieved.)

Until I reached West Farndon there had been a dearth of insects but Common Dung Flies Scathophaga stercoraria were present on sheep droppings and I secured a very common bluebottle, Eudasyphora cyanella, which was basking on Ivy foliage. Snowdrops were in flower but little else; the chilly start to the month has held things back.

The final stage of my walk was a longish slog along a fairly busy road, not the most attractive of conditions but I was heartened by soaring skylarks doing their best to mimic Ralph Vaughan Williams. Fieldfares chak-chakked in annoyance at my approach.

In six weeks time Chis and I are off to France on a walking holiday and I'm some way short of being fit enough, but today was helpful - and very pleasant too.

Dandelions

On 15th February I was walking along the base of the huge earthen retaining wall at Boddington Reservoir when I saw a Dandelion in flower. Nothing remarkable in that; Dandelions are known to everyone in Britain from early childhood not only for their golden flowers but their globular fruiting heads which we, as children, called clocks. The leaves and roots are edible but are diuretic - my grandmother called them "Wet-the-bed".(Its French name is 'pissenlit'.)     

The fact that the plant was growing at the foot of this bank is probably not significant but Dandelions do seem to favour such a spot. John Clare wrote:

And Dandelions like suns will bloom
Aside some bank or hillock low.

              From "Village Minstrel"



As with many early Dandelions the plant 
I found had a sessile inflorescence, i.e. 

Dandelion at Boddington Reservoir.
15 February, 2013

it was stemless. I have called it a Dandelion as
though this is a straightforward species, but this is far from true. Despite being visited by many "pollinating" insects, the actual seed is produced without fertilization and is therefore wholly female in origin. This arrangement, known as apomixis, has resulted in a huge number of "microspecies" existing, with about 230 being currently recognised in Britain.

The word dandelion is said to derive from the French dente de lion - 'lion's tooth' and refers to the plant's jagged leaves.

Incidentally, the earthen bank referred to earlier is home to a very fine colony of Cowslips. But that can wait for another blog.

Byfield Pool and Boddington Reservoir.

Jews Ear Fungus on Elder near Byfield
15 February, 2013

The sun shone enticingly through the bedroom windows from an early hour and I resolved to go for a longish walk. I passed through the village and set off down Pit Lane, invariably - and appropriately - known locally as Muddy Lane. A Sparrowhawk was ahead of me along the bridle path, flying for twenty paces or so then, as I grew near, flying on for a for another twenty until it tired of my presence and veered away.  i had no real plans to catch flies but I had my net with me and was rather pleased to secure a Heleomyzid fly, Tephrochlamys rufiventris, from ivy foliage. It is not rare but I haven't found it in this area before. I pushed on along the disused Stratford-upon-Avon and Midlands Junction Railway, passing along the southern edge of Parson's Spinney. Beside the railway track one trunk of Elder bore a large array of Jew's Ear fungi (see blog for 22nd December). I'd walked this section before but was still dismayed at the great expanse of arable where, two years before, a wonderful array of wild flowers grew. Farming is a business and the land was ploughed in response to the rising price of wheat - but I was still saddened.

"Once there were flowers"  Looking west with
Parson's Spinney on the right.

Woodpecker hole in an old poplar stump
Parson's Spinney, 15 February, 2013

I continued heading west, skirting the edge of Parson's Spinney with its fine cherry trees. A Green Woodpecker called with its slightly insane laugh (one old name for this bird is the Yaffle) but I failed to spot it. There are also some large poplars and, where one had died, a woodpecker had been at work. For no obvious reason many of the trees in this spinney have died; it receives no management but the mixture of healthy, moribund and dead trees is perhaps not a bad situation. 

Dead trees are allowed to decay on the
woodland floor. Byfield Pool, 15 February, 2013

I pushed on, and the ground began to fall away down to Byfield Pool, a very interesting reserve with carr-like conditions, managed by Northants Wildlife Trust. Again dead trees are frequent, home to wood boring insects, fungi and much else. One particularly large specimen bore a white velvety coating of what I believe is Schizopora paradoxus, a common fungus in this situation. 



A fungus, perhaps Schizopora paradoxa, at Byfield Pool.

15 February, 2013

The pool itself is a relatively small body of water when compared to the adjacent Boddington Reservoir but for wildlife it is far more interesting and birds such as the elusive Water Rail may be seen by the patient and lucky observer. I didn't linger as I wanted to push on and do a circuit of the  main reservoir, whose function is not that of supplying mains water but of keeping the nearby Oxford canal topped up.



Byfield Pool 14.February, 2013



"Dead in the water" but this
tree will be of great value to
wildlife.



Boddington Reservoir looking west

The water level in the reservoir was very high and a number of trees have been submerged at the base. This will not trouble Alders and Willows but I was surprised to see an Oak tree flourishing in an area where it is very wet all year, although others has succumbed to the conditions. 



Oak, apparently flourishing
Boddington Reservoir
15 February, 2013

I had intended to quickly look at another nature reserve nearby, but the entry point to Boddington Meadow Reserve was impassable with a ten-foot wide water-filled ditch barring any visitors.

Dandelions were in flower but these mundane yet interesting plants deserve a blog to themselves.

Winter Aconites

I am rather envious of my friends Mike and Annie Bosley. They usually have a fine show of Winter Aconites yet, although we live less than a hundred metres from them, I've had no luck in growing them. In theory they are not difficult and in many parts of Britain these delightful plants have become well naturalised, but the dried corms for sale in garden centres are not always easy to break from their dormancy. Hereabouts the flowers have been in bud for a couple of weeks but it was not until today, when the temperatures quickly rose (bringing floods, but that's another story), that they fully opened - a splash of colour for St Valentine's Day. The ones I photographed were not those of Mike and Annie but I noticed them along Potter's End, also in Byfield. 

Winter Aconites, Eranthis hyemalis, Potter's End, Byfield
14 February, 2013

There are about eight species in the genus, all found in south east Europe or Asia, but the one almost invariably grown is Eranthis hyemalis. A close relative from Sicily, E.cilicica, has larger flowers and is sometimes grown, but is not as reliably hardy. Even a non-botanist can see at a glance that Eranthis is a member of the Buttercup Family, Ranunculaceae, and like nearly all other members of the family, the plants are poisonous (though far less dangerous than another family member, Monkshood). The whorl of bracts, forming a frill beneath the flowers, makes them distinctive and there are other structural differences too but they are of interest only to the enthusiast. 

Conker Trees

The Horse Chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, seems to have arrived in Britain around 1610. It is native to the Balkans and Greece but is generally pretty hardy in I can never recall having seen a tree frost damaged. True chestnuts belong to the very large Oak family, Fagaceae, but Horse Chestnuts are not at all related and are placed in a far smaller family, the Hippocastanaceae. A Sweet Chestnut is a fruit whereas a conker is just a seed.

I suppose that, like many children, the Horse Chestnut was one of the first trees I learnt to recognise, obviously because its large round seeds were used for playing conkers but also through its panicles of cream and pink flowers, which we called "candles". I had always assumed that the word "conker" derived from "conqueror", since the object of the game is to conquer your opponent's specimen. However, I find that on old version of the game was played with snail shells and the alternative possibility is that "conker" is from the French word "conque" - a shell. We may never know the truth. 

I have spoken of the seeds but not their protective spiny casing. Nor have I mentioned the distinctive leaves with their palmately compound arrangement of leaflets. In recent years the leaves have become disfigured by larvae of the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner as shown in the picture. This moth, Cameraria ohridella, seems to have arrived in Britain in 2002 but has spread at an astonishing rate, affecting all the trees I've seen in the last two or three years.

Damage by the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner,
Byfield Pocket Park, Summer, 2012

Despite being so unsightly there seems to be no long-term damage to the trees. What is surprising, for a moth which arrived so recently, is that a number of parasitoid wasps have already begun to take advantage of this newcomer. These wasps attack the almost full-grown larvae by laying eggs on them. When an egg hatches the wasp grub enter the body of the larva and feeds on it though, surprisingly, less than 10% of the victims die as a result. (British Wildlife, Vol 22, No 4, pages 305-313).

The conkers are poisonous although cases but on the other hand I was told as a child that they could be used to make soap. This is true. The conkers contain saponins and these are the active ingredient in many soaps now available commercially although I have no plans to purchase them - or make the soap myself.