More of a flutter than a twitter... but a few tweets included!

And I don't mean a gamble, either...

The beginning of the end of October and there are still plenty of butterflies around...
Yesterday I saw dozens of Speckled Woods [Pararge aegeria] Tircis as I walked around the meadow to assess this Winter's tree and land work...

There is an ant trying to hitch a lift here... or else he's practising his scales!!

also, in the potager area we still have appreciable numbers of Clouded Yellows and a few Peacocks, Red Admirals and the odd Map...

Clouded Yellow... they never stay still!!

and on the 15th an utterly mad Humming-bird Hawkmoth working the Gaura flowers in the front bed...
in the teeming rain!!
Needed its antennae checking, that one!!

The Chiffchaffs are still here in good numbers...
I saw the first of the seasons Great White Egrets in the long field on the left as I drove from Grand Pressigny towards Abilly...
and Pauline saw a Crane [Grus grus] Grue Cendre yesterday...
just the one trumpeting away... and flying North East...
must have taken off early that morning, got so far...
and then realised that everyone else had stayed put at the previous nights stopover!!
The Black Redstarts are still around and the Robins are back!

A bit of Eperon de Murat news...
Pauline and I went to Ferrière-Larçon on Thursday evening to see what the new plans for the site were...
it was a presentation by the Conservatoire du Patrimoine Naturel de la Région Centre.

Hopefully...
a walkway from the road to the Murat farm to the main fields of the site itself...
and a pathway round...
the mayor, Gérard Henault, bemoaned the current main access that requires people to be "below 30 years old and have alpiniste skills"...
and the fact that he is getting no help at all on purchasing the farm itself...
the intention being to turn it into an interpretive centre, housing permanent and occasional displays as well as providing shelter for visitors in inclement weather.
Then, a couple of people in the audience {owners of Murat?} started arguing about the size of the plaque [about a foot square, apparently]...
and I was reminded of a meeting long ago when a committee I was involved with spent three hours discussing the first item on the agenda...
of vital importance, of course...
the colour of the cover of the college diary!!
[If I'd been the chair that would have gone to a sub-committee!!!!]

And then comments were made about the size of the car park...
if it was for more than two cars it was going to be too big!!
"We don't actually want people to visit"... was the opinion of the very vocal minority...
the same couple who were concerned that a foot square sign was going to be too big!

Actually, neither do the guardians of the site want too many visitors...
understandable, considering the rare plants & insects and the ancient fortifications...
so they are intending to install infra-red footfall counters in a couple of places...
it was also pointed out that it is about a kilometre from the proposed car park to the site itself...
many people will satisfy themselves with any display that may be at the farm and drive on, mentally ticking it off as "visited".

There are too many trees now on the site... especially the junipers... mainly there through neglect / lack of management and the current sheep are too selective [read fussy] and are not munching them properly...
they really ought to use Scottish Black Faced sheep...
not as fussy, about the only thing they won't eat is Nardus stricta [Mattgrass] which is too siliceous for even them...
the Wildlife Trusts use these for their "Flying Flocks"...
as do the LPO [who advertise their excess for sale at the back of L'Oiseaux magazine...
along with their excess Highland cattle! 
I'm tempted by the latter for here... 
only tempted mind!]

So these, along with the trees that have rooted into the defensive wall [vallum] and are slowly destroying that, must be controlled with more vigour!!
Major snag here...
removing the trees on the vallum will lead to erosion of the unprotected wall....
so a long roof will need to be constructed until other vegetation establishes...
don't hold your breath on that one...
apart from the obvious cost...
the example shown [from elsewhere] met with assorted gasps and disapproving grunts!!
It did look ugly... like a poorly built wood store!!

The two speakers were very poor, though...
the first swallowing the latter half of most of her sentences...
and the other spoke at the computer screen all the time!
Fortunately, monsieur le Maire often sub-titled what was being said by his comments!!

More interesting and understandable was the PowerPoint presentation... including two aerial views of the site...
one from 1950 showing all the little fields and very few trees...

Look at all the very little fields in the top right corner...
and the vallum is already marked by a tree line...
the smaller wall [muraille] is just visible as a faint line almost the same distance from the main wall...
as the main wall is from the tip.

and one from 1970 showing one vast field over all but the tip of the protected area!!

So we watch with interest....
whilst I can still manage to scramble up from the stile at the bottom, Pauline cannot...
so effectively is barred from the barré!!

SPOTTED ON THE WEB: Magnificent... giant mushrooms...

View the video...

The "Spotted on the Web" widget won't save any updates again...
so I thought I'd send readers a quick heads up on a great bit of video.

View the video...

"Giant woven willow sculptures of some of the UK's edible mushroom varieties have sprung up on the lawns at Kew Gardens in west London.
Kew's experts look after the largest collection of dried fungi in the world - which also includes more sinister, inedible varieties.

The fungarium at Kew Gardens  is opening to the public on 13 October to mark National Fungus Day. " BBC

View the video...

Kew have commisioned an willow sculptor, Tom Hare, to create huge willow mushroom sculptures of edible UK mushroom species.
The video is here and is well worth watching [only 4.5 mins long].

"Take a peek with Bryn Dentinger, Kew's head of mycology - and see artist Tom Hare's larger than life creations. " BBC

Especially to see how he did the Cep!!

I SAID VIEW THE VIDEO

 

Mellow morning mists... and a lost football...

Of Autumn Mists and mellow fruitlessness...

It was wet on the way back from Chatellerault on Friday...
[see the end of Saturday's "Days on the Claise" blog entry]...
but on the way there I had seen something large lurking at the edge of a field.

On the way back, having endured deafening rain on the skylights of Lidl...
lakes in the carpark at Le Clerc and speeding-irriots without any lights on on the way back....
I was hoping that the rain would have eased once we'd crossed the Claise.
Some hope!!

I leapt quickly out of the car and grabbed the creature...
it hadn't moved!!
But I wasn't taking any photographs....
not with the rain teeming down.
What was so marvellous that I braved teeming rain....
this....

A Giant Puffball.... but I took the picture Sunday in the sun!!

Food source of extreme size... but very good for the waistline [unless you fry it in butter!!]
More about this will be on "De la Bonne Bouffe" later....
but I will say more, here, about the Giant Puffball [Calvatia gigantea] Vesse-de-loup géante itself...

Not over appetising from underneath... but there is enough here to cut this bit off!

On average they grow to around 10 to 70 centimetres (3.9 to 28 in) in diameter...but specimens have been found up to 150 centimetres across with a weight of 20 kilos!!
Now there's a food source...
This one was 23cm across and weighed 872 grammes.
All smaller ones must be cut through regardless of their maturity...
they are easily confused at this size with the immature unopened white mushrooms...
some of which are deadly!
The inside of a Giant Puffball is white and mealy [in fact, it looks & smells wonderfully floury]

Inside the puffball... note the thick skin surrounding the mass of spores

But the puffballs aren't when mature, and white inside... which this one was!!
Maturity goes from a yellow stage to a ghastly dry, greeny brown spore stage....
all of these actually look most unappetising...
and I honestly don't think that any sensible person would even consider using one!

Trying to measure it... no giant callipers... had to use two hardback books!!

Looking it up on Wiki created a wonderful guide to cultures...
English Wiki was informative and very scientific with comments about boring taxonomic details...
sorry Susan [I know that taxonomy is important... but I can't afford new guide books which are out of date on publication]...

"The classification of this species has been revised in recent years, as the formerly recognized class Gasteromycetes, which included all puffballs, has been found to be polyphyletic.
Some authors place the giant puffball and other members of genus Calvatia in order Agaricales.
Also, the species has in the past been placed in two other genera, Lycoperdon and Langermannia.
However, the current view is that the Giant Puffball is Calvatia.
Recently, some members of the genus Calvatia have been re-located into the genus Handkea."

Which is why I can never find anything if I use my Collins Guide from 1965!!
You can all wake up now!

Whereas the French Wiki entry has the basic info...
then a whole section on usage...

Utilisations effectives ou envisagées

Génie génétique & biotechnologies : Cette espèce intéresse certains généticiens par sa taille et sa capacité à produire de la lipase extracellulaire qui a justifié son étude approfondie et une utilisation éventuelle pour le génie génétique. on a ainsi montré que sur un milieu de culture optimisé pour le carbone et les nitrates, le pH initial et la température du milieu de culture, la production de lipase peut être augmentée de 87 % pour atteindre 22,4 unités/ml de culture, ce qui le rend complétif avec les autres moyens de produire la lipase. La lipase produite par ce champignon est active à un pH neutre (7.0) t à 30°C avec dans ces conditions une demie vie à pH neutre de 75,7 minutes à 45°C et 22,9 minutes à 55°C.
En présence d'amidon dans le milieu de culture, il excrète aussi de une amylase (alfa-Amylase (EC 3.2.1.1).
Épuration : Cette espèce produit aussi une enzyme dégradant la catéchine; deux formes isométriques en ont été identifiées. Ce système enzymatique qui était inconnu lui permet de dégrader les tanin]s hydrolysables et condensés, et des composés phénoliques simples (à pH 7,5-8,0 et 40-45°C); Ce champignon pourrait donc être utilisé pour biodégrader certains composés phénoliques et polyphénoliques toxiques (fréquents dans certains effluents industriels ou sur certains types de friches industrielles polluées) et les tanins condensés.
Pharmacologie : Des recherches semblent indiquer que Calvacia gigantea contient de la calvacine, un anti-cancéreux.
Il a été testé pour la production de protéines microbiennes et l'épuration conjointe de déchets et effluents de brasseries.

but, before all that, one on cooking... [with a dire health warning!!]

Comestibilité et gastronomie

Jeune et tant que sa chair est bien blanche, il est comestible (cru ou cuit). On peut le poêler en tranches ou en cubes, on peut le paner à la manière d'une escalope et même le griller. Il peut aussi être mangé cru en salade, découpé et saupoudré d'un peu de sel et de citron, après 2 heures de macération environ.
[Nice this way or use lime juice or orange juice... and add the zest of whichever you use.]

Comme tous les champignons, il est très peu calorique et contient beaucoup de fibres, c'est de ce point de vue un bon aliment en cas de régime.

Mais comme beaucoup de champignons sauvages, il contient également des toxines en faible quantité et peut fixer certains métaux très toxiques (dont mercure et méthylmercure par exemple) et il est donc déconseillé d'en manger de grandes quantité ou plusieurs fois par semaine. il bioaccumule particulièrement bien le mercure avec des teneurs atteignant jusqu'à 19,7 ppm en poids sec mesurées lors d'une étude qui a analysé des échantillons de 32 espèces de champignons prélevés sur des sols scandinaves a priori non pollués.

Par rapport à d'autres espèces (agarics par exemple), il semble moins bioaccumuler le méthylmercure que le mercure (dans les agarics, très bioaccumulateurs de mercure et méthylmercure, sur sol non-pollué on peut trouver 20 à 50 fois plus de mercure que dans le sol environnant).

With a strong warning about what it will pick up from the soil!
Marvellous!!!

So, it is Autumn and the season for fungi...
but...
be careful what you pick...
if you are unsure about your identification...

BIN IT!!

Something is nibbling my nuts!

Well, not the nuts, but the leaves of one of the hazels...
they are caterpillars of the Buff-tip moth [Phalera bucephala] la Bucéphale...
and they were decimating the leaves of one filbert.
just the one, mind... the greenest leaved one!!

Just a few here....

Pauline spotted them as she harvested the nuts... they were quite visible...
these yellow-and-black striped, silver haired caterpillars live gregariously...
and feed on a number of different deciduous trees*...
sometimes, as on our hazel, defoliating entire branches.
"Wiki" seems to think that it is only gregarious when young...
but these were large caterpillars... around two and a half inches long and a quarter of an inch thick.
I knocked the branches they were on and collected them in a plastic box...
and then 'broadcast' them at the "hazel beyond the brambles"....

at the bottom corner of the verger...
[the one we can't get at to pick]
They can decimate that to their hearts content...
but they can leave my nuts alone!!

Which end is which?

I knew the moth well, having seen it many times...
and have even seen it here...

Buff-tip...  or dead twig? [Click on this picture to enlarge it and see the real beauty of the scales.]

and as can be seen from the picture above it looks fairly like a broken bit of twig.

The buff ends look like rotten wood and the silver-grey between like a silvery bark...
all the books liken this to Silver Birch...
but around here, I would reckon this is better on dead Poplar....
in fact, a damn sight more successful...
Silver Birch branches up to about three-quarters of an inch diameter are usually a dull, mid-brown colour!
Dead Poplar branches become silvery-grey at quite small diameters.
As do those of Ash!!

Team strippers in action...

The adults fly June and July...
and their caterpillars can be found between July and October on....
*and this is based on the "Wiki" list...

Norway Maple... down by the river
Field Maple... everywhere
Birch... we've planted some
Hazel... yes, well!!
Laburnum... not around here... not ever!
Lime... in the front garden
Poplar sp... just a few... thousand
Prunus sp... mainly Blackthorn... then there are our plums, etc.
Oak... yes, plenty...
Robinia... NO! Never...
Rose... plenty
Willow... eighteen species here...
Elm... mostly Wych Elm in the hedges
Viburnum... we've planted V.opulus for the birds [and Autumn colour]

so there's plenty of other plants for Buffy to eat!!

Most sources give the wingspan as 42-56 mm [except "Wiki"... 55 to 68mm?]
and the caterpillar 65-75mm [2.5 to 3 inches]

The tail-end view of a bunch... the middle one is wearing a bandit mask... and well it should!!

The Wildlife Trusts gives the following information...

"The Buff-tip is a medium-sized moth that is on the wing at night from June to July.
It is quite a common moth in parks and gardens, as well as woodland edges, scrub and hedgerows.
The caterpillars are striking: large, hairy and yellow, with a black head and a ring of short black stripes on every segment.
They often gather together in large numbers, eating the leaves of Lime, Birch, Hazel and Willow trees, sometimes defoliating whole branches, but rarely causing serious damage.
This moth pupates on the ground and overwinters as a chrysalis."

The Forestry Commission points out that..

"although they occur rather later in the summer than oak processionary moth larvae...
from a distance they can resemble this species when their abundant fine grey hairs (setae) catch the light. However, on closer inspection they are easily identified by their distinctly patterned yellow and black body with grey and yellow stripes."

Eurostar design concept?... they were certainly speed eating!

From the Saga website...
{not one of my normal haunts, but was linked to from elsewhere...}
so I followed where no self respecting over-50s would wish to tread...
there one David Chapman introduces a master of disguise...

"Moths tend to be active by night, a strategy which offers them safety from the majority of predators, with the exception of bats. However this approach does present them with a problem: what to do to remain safe during the day!

The answer is that moths hide away in all sorts of nooks and crannies and dark places where they might be safe from predatory birds and mammals. To help them remain hidden most moths are drably coloured, and this is sufficient for them to avoid being spotted but some have a much more precise camouflage.

The buff-tip moth has one of the most amazing camouflage patterns and even its shape has evolved to help it blend in with its chosen surroundings. When a Buff-tip moth rests amongst broken twigs on the woodland floor, or amongst branches on a tree, it almost disappears from sight.

Buff-tip moths can be found in gardens and woodland, their flight season is mostly June and July. Having spent the winter as a chrysalis underground the adult moth takes to the wing and the females soon lay a large batch of eggs. Their larvae hatch out en masse, eating the leaves of various trees including sallows, birch, oak and hazel, and for a while, stick together making them a good deal more obvious than their parents! Once they have the strength, they spread out before pupating underground in the autumn and so the life-cycle begins again."

More from "Wiki"...

"The Buff-tip (Phalera bucephala) is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found throughout Europe.

This is a fairly large, heavy bodied species with a wingspan of 55–68 mm. The forewings are grey with a large prominent buff patch at the apex. As the thoracic hair is also buff, the moth looks remarkably like a broken twig when at rest. The hindwings are creamy-white. This moth flies at night in June and July and sometimes comes to light, although it is not generally strongly attracted."

Ready for transportation to the colonies...