Clary flowers in #Suffolk:
Salvia nemorosa, Balkan Clary, Abbey Garden #BuryStEdmunds an escape from a so called 'wild flower' bed! 😡
Wild Clary, Salvia verbenacea, growing on a grassy bank by All Saints' Church #Icklingham. 🤗
#WildflowerHour
Silly places to put rare plants in #Icklingham, #Suffolk #Brecks:
A white flowered form of Sand Lucerne, #Medicago sativa varia, in the middle of a cinder track;
Small Nightshade, #Solanum triflorum, in the middle of the combine access track into a barley field at harvest time! 🙄
#WildflowerHour
Three close up photos of three subspecies of Medicago sativa: left to right - sativa (Lucerne) varia (Sand Lucerne) falcata (Sickle Medick). THE RULES: photos must be material from one plant but may include a flowering and a fruiting stem held together but not with any part of the human hand. 😁
Sunny day in the #Suffolk #Brecks to contrive* photos of #Meicago sativa flowers & seed pods. So here are:
Lucerne, Sand Lucerne, & Sickle Medick (Medicago sativa: sativa, varia, falcata) First #BuryStEdmunds field margin, others #Icklingham Triangle SSSI. *'Rules' in ALT 🌼🫘✅✋❌ not easy! 😵💫 #Botany
For #stainedglassSunday some colourful glass, possibly 14th century, depicting a saint in the #Suffolk village of #Icklingham
A photo of an open area of short grassland with trees beyond and a tilted post with an arrow showing the direction of a footpath.
"How about that way" - suggested route over #Icklingham Triangle SSSI #Suffolk. #FingerPostFriday
A row of old Native Black Poplars in a field with Rooks flying above them in a blue sky.
Native Black Poplars looking fine in sunshine today with Rooks heralding Spring. #Icklingham #Suffolk
We surprised a Tawny Owl & a Fox in a thicket.
As the sun lowered, the deer emerged from the King's Forest; a lone Fallow and, in the sugar beet, a two-headed Red Deer.
#FallowDeer #RedDeer #Icklingham #WestSuffolk #TheBrecks #Brecks #Breckland
10/10
I❤️The Brecks. Where else can you have a postprandial evening stroll, 5 mins from home, & encounter the wonders I share here. Suddenly the summer flora is here, with the magnificence of Viper's Bugloss, yet still Spring Beauty lurks in the woods. #MyWalk #Icklingham 🧵1/10
Haws, tightly furled Alder catkins and Teasels all encased in hoar frost on the banks of the River Lark, still and silent but for the twitter of feeding flocks of tits & finches & the occasional shriek of a Water Rail. #CavenhamHeath #WestSuffolk #Icklingham #wildflowerhour 2/3
Today the sun never broke through the freezing fog, leaving the vegetation in the grip of the hoar frost all day. Proper winter!
#RiverLark #CavenhamHeath #WestSuffolk #Icklingham #Breckland #TwitterNatureCommunity #MyWalk
🧵1/3
A Stickleback inspects the chalky bed of the River Lark, a true #chalkstream.
Sadly, an illegal crayfish trap, apparently abandoned, but containing a live Signal Crayfish. Nearby, a dead Chub.
Wonder if this pottery, with a hole in it, is ancient?
#Icklingham #Suffolk
3/5
Also lots of shoals of Minnow fry, sheltering among the Bur-reeds.
And good numbers of Brown Trout - most about 9-12 inches, but one almost 2 foot long nearly bumped into me as it came downstream, before doing a hasty U-turn.
#Browntrout #Chalkstreams #Icklingham #Suffolk 2/5
I wonder what this pretty little fungus is on Deadman's Grave?
Could the lower one be Entoloma exile?
#Icklingham #Brecks #Breckland #WestSuffolk #Fungi
5/5
Am wondering if this is Silky Pinkgill (Entoloma sericium) on Deadman's Grave.?
And lower right, Psilocybe (Deconica) coprophila?
#Icklingham #Brecks #Breckland #WestSuffolk #Fungi
4/5
Could the top fungus be Fragrant Funnel (Clitocybe fragrans)?
But what about the lower one?
Both found on Deadman's Grave.
#Icklingham #Brecks #Breckland #WestSuffolk #Fungi
3/5
On Deadman's Grave, a Hare's form, warm to the touch from where she sprang.
One Skylark released a quick burst of song during a break in the clouds, while a flock of 9 Woodlarks fed on the adjacent stubble.
A Peregrine flew over, westwards.
#MyWalk #Icklingham #WestSuffolk
1/5
At Deadman's Grave could the top fungi be Scurfy Twiglet (Turbaria furfuracea) and the lower, Entolomas?
#fungi #FungiFriday #Icklingham #WestSuffolk #TheBrecks #Brecks #Breckland #Suffolk
4/4
Always good to find Earthtongue.
Many puffballs of several species on Deadman's Grave; is this Grassland Puffball (Lycoperdon lividum)?
I wonder what this funnel shaped mushroom is?
#fungi #FungiFriday #Icklingham #WestSuffolk #TheBrecks #Brecks #Breckland #Suffolk
3/4
Nothing like a flock of bouncing Fieldfares, in the long awaited winter sun, to gladden the heart.
#MyWalk #fieldfare #fieldfares #starlings #DeadMansGrave #Icklingham #WestSuffolk #TheBrecks #Brecks #Breckland #BirdsSeenIn2022
1/4
The River Lark, yesterday, was the clearest it's been this year, as it gently swept me over its flowing bur-reed tresses.
Not many fish visible apart from Minnows, Sticklebacks and a few small Roach.
#RiverLark #ChalkStreams #Chalkstream #Icklingham #WestSuffolk
5/5
The change of light between the top 2 pics shows how long I tarried with the denizens of Cavenham Mill Stream. By the time I floated back down the #RiverLark to #Icklingham, it was eventide. The river a balmy 18.1°C contrasting with the invigorating #chalkstream at 14.8°C.
4/5
A miscellaneous selection of rosettes, from a Breckland heath: Spring Beauty (with Common Chickweed), Round-leaved Cranesbill (Geranium rotundifolia) (?) Heath Groundsel (Senecio sylvaticus) (?) & a beautiful Common Storksbill.
#Icklingham #wildflowerhour #rosettechallenge
5/6
A selection of rosettes, from a Breckland heath, of the Compositae or Daisy Family: Common Ragwort, Musk Thistle (?), Rough Hawkbit (?) & my favourite, Smooth Catsear (Hypochaeris glabra) (?).
#Icklingham #WestSuffolk #Brecks #Breckland #wildflowerhour #rosettechallenge
4/6
Here are some more miniature plants of the Breckland heaths: the winning rosette goes to Common Whitlowgrass (?), with runners up Parsley Piert, Biting Stonecrop & Wild Thyme.
#Icklingham #WestSuffolk #Brecks #TheBrecks #Breckland #wildflowerhour #rosettechallenge 3/6
Here's some Breckland specialities yesterday for #wildflowerhour #rosettechallenge: Spring Speedwell (Veronica verna) not yet in flower, Field Wormwood (Artemsia campestris), Broad-leaved Cudweed (Filago pyramidata) & ?Cotton Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)
#MyWalk #Icklingham
1/6
On the trunk and at the base of the same Alder, is this Alder Bracket (Inonotus radiatus or Mensularia radiata)?With Ochre Aldercap (Naucoria scolecina) nearby?
And the stained wood of Green Elfcup (Chlorociboria aeruginascens)?
#Fungi #Icklingham Plains, #WestSuffolk
3/3
The #RiverLark, one of England's 224 #chalkstreams (>85% of the global total), doing what it should do, spilling over the flood plain - the wettest I've seen it in 25 years. Marvellous.
Woodcocks think so too judging by the probe marks. #MyWalk #WorldWetlandsDay #Icklingham
1/3
Plenty of Cushion Brackets (Phellinus pomaceus)? on the Blackthorn in the thicket at Icklingham Triangle, in various different growth forms.
Elsewhere on #CavenhamHeath a couple of unidentified crusts?
#Fungi #Icklingham #Breckland #Brecks
4/5
On the Icklingham Black Poplars, spectacular Tripe Fungus (Auricularia mesenterica), Oyster Mushrooms, and are these brackets Gandoderma sp?
#Fungi #Icklingham #Breckland #Brecks
3/5
