21st September 2009 2009
National moth night didn’t produce a very interesting catch when I put out the trap
in my garden at Hemsworth. I caught several Large Yellow Underwings and a Black Rustic.
Black Rustics have been showing up in the moth-
At Ackworth, a bracket fungus has appeared on the side of an oak tree by the Went.
The fungus, a sulphur polypore, was initially bright orange and yellow but is already
fading as it ages. The fungus is two or three metres above the ground and through
a hole at the base of the tree it can be seen that the tree has a lot of heart-
At the weekend, I was supervising pupils in the Yorkshire Dales. I spent some time
on the moors near Scar House Reservoir where I didn’t see any of the usual birds
of interest, such as red kite and peregrine, but I watched two kestrels as they carried
out a series of high-
The latest of the summer flowers are now in bloom. Locally, common toadflax can be
seen on road verges in one or two places but a bit of searching is needed. The other
toadflax -