Lime Tree Avenue - Snails and Song Thrushes

A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to spot a Song Thrush in Lime Tree Avenue.  It disappeared behind one of the old trees.

One of the old Lime Trees - showing epicormic growths (suckers).

As I watched the thrush disappear, I noticed the epicormic growths around the bottom of the tree.  Over the last couple of weekends the Brighter Uckfield group have been trimming these growths away, as well as removing litter from the avenue.

I always find this a very satisfying and calming job - and with all the worry about the Corvid-19 virus, I've certainly needed to be calmed down. The word "Mindfulness" is very over used but this type of work, where you methodically remove unwanted growths and have to pay attention while doing it forces me to stay in the moment and really notice the sights and sounds of the avenue.

White-lipped Snails

I always find some tiny wildlife while working on the trees. This year, I found about a dozen White-lipped Snails while working on the three trees that I trimmed. I find that, in the garden, these nibble away dying flowers etc. unlike the bigger Common Garden Snail that makes a nice mess of some of my plants. These little snails are just the sort of thing that a hungry thrush eats.

Common Plume moth.

While clipping my way through the ruby-budded growths, I found a little T-shaped moths, a Common Plume. This moth my look delicate but it can be found during all months of the year.

My last tree - before and after.

After I finished my third and final tree, I collected some of the stems that I had pruned off so I could see the fresh, green leaves open over the next few weeks.

Sussex Botanical Recording Society - ghosts and roses

At this time of year the Sussex Botanical Recording Society (SBRS) holds its AGM at Staplefield.

The Victory Pub, which does very nice lunches.

My first priority when I got to Staplefield,  was lunch.

Dicranoweisia cirrata (Common Pincushion) 

As there was a few minutes before the pub opened, I photographed a moss just outside, in the hope of identifying it later. Two of the more intrepid members of the Society were busy recording the plants on the village green. They joined me and we had a lovely lunch in the pub.

Treasure!

I was helping to arrange chairs in the Village Hall when treasure appeared in the form of books.  I selected a few including Walley Dod's Sussex Flora of 1937 and a big book of mosses. When I looked through Wolley Dod in the evening, the Uckfield I know was suddenly filled with the ghosts of long-gone cornfields, ponds and other places where wild plants once thrived. After the usual formalities, there were interesting and informative presentations.

• There a just a few churchyards to go for the New Church Yard survey. The records are at the Biological Record Centre.
• In 2017, I did Uckfield's Holy Cross churchyard 
• The Village Greens and Recreation Grounds survey is under way. 
• In 2018, I did the Rugby Club, The Dene, Luxford Field, Hempstead Playing Fields
• In 2019, I did Victoria Pleasure Grounds
• In 2020, I aim to do the Recreation Area at Harlands, where the toad pond is.
• There was a tour of the field meetings. 
• In March 2019, I took part in the Henfield moss field trip and have been struggling to learn more about mosses ever since!
• Later in the year, I took part in the Plaw Hatch visit. It was here that I first met  Sonchus arvensis (Perennial Sow Thistle) - and kept on seeing it for the rest of the year. I do wonder how I failed to notice it before.
• This year, I hope to go to the Ashdown Forest one in August.

I hope to go looking for roses this year.

It has been suggested that we look out for roses as many of those listed in Wolley Dod have not been re-found. We don't get that many wild roses round Uckfield and my "new" Wolley Dod doesn't mention Uckfield or the nearby villages much in this section.

Notes from Charlotte Smith talk.

Brad Scott gave a splendid talk about one of Sussex's earliest women botanists, Charlotte Smith, who was a successful writer in the 1700s. Her poetry and books give such vivid descriptions of wild plants and the places where she encountered them that I half expect to catch a glimpse of a bonnet and a long dress, the next time I go botanising.

There will be the usual photo competition:

• close up
• wild plant in churchyard habitat

All that remains is for me to dust off my recording sheets and get going again because "I aint afraid of no ghost!"