Some Basic "Treeology"

-

 In a previous existence I used to teach Outdoor Education to children. A lot of time was spent in woodland areas and I developed a system of "Treeology" and I thought I would share it today. I get grumpy when everything is referred to as a "Christmas Tree" or a "Fir Tree" when they are not!

Most of the trees that we came across were conifers (Highlands of Scotland) and I freely admit that this system more or less works in the UK but if you are reading this in Oregon and have things like Ponderosa pine you might struggle with it but here goes.

This system starts with the needles or pin shaped leaves. The leaves on conifers are held on little pegs and are arranged in groups.

If the needle cluster has either LOTS of needles or no needles at all it is Likely to be a Larch. (all the Ls). Larch trees are deciduous and loose their leaves in winter so there might be no needles. We have half a dozen larch in our grounds.



If the leaf clusters are in PAIRS it is Probably a PINE. (all the Ps). In the UK this is likely to be either a Scots Pine or in forestry plantations possibly non native Lodgepole pine. We have about 20 Scots pine.


If the needles appear SINGLY it is Surely a Spruce. (Norway Spruce or possibly non native Sitka spruce if the undersides are much paler and the needles are prickly. We have another 20 or so Norway Spruce.


The exception to the last rule is that if the needles are FLATTENED its Famously a FIR. We have a couple of Fir trees that were transplanted outside having been bought as Christmas trees.

Stage two of conifer ID goes on to the different cones but I'll save that for another day!

Diary Notes
We have had a couple of sparrowhawk incidents at our bird feeders in the last 24 hrs. One was when the female hawk took a blue tit and they both collided with a window before she took her prey away. Another bang on the window was a near miss for another blue tit. The female hawk was back again later posing for a photograph on the wall.
The farmer next door has been spraying the field with slurry. This always attracts the common gulls but a close study of a flock of 100 common gull revealed at least one Black Headed Gull in amongst them.  These are becoming easier to spot now that they are gaining their summer time black on their heads.
Overnight cameras revealed one badger, one polecat, and one otter








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Dunnock

-
Image
 When I was a boy my first bird book described "hedge sparrows" but at some time in the last 50 years this name has all but disappeared and these birds are now called dunnocks (as they are not closely related to House and Tree Sparrows) Its easy to miss a dunnock! They are little brown birds and they tend to feed on the ground and keep to the cover of vegetation if they can. The males are territorial and the birds pair up in the spring. The pair are not strictly monogamous and the female will mate with another male if she gets the chance. DNA testing reveals that a brood often has more than one father. The male dunnocks are alert to this possibility and can sometimes be seen pecking at the cloacal opening of the female in an attempt to get her to expel the sperm of the competitor. The sexes look alike and these birds are common and widespread in Britain. The males get involved in feeding young according to their breeding success so it is common to find two males and one femal...
Read more

White Clawed Crayfish

-
Image
 I went for a walk yesterday that took me along the Scandal Beck (a tributary of the River Eden). On the banks of the river was a stone that had obviously been used as a picnic table by an otter and the remains of his meal were strewn about. A recognisable part of the leftovers is shown below. It's clear that this claw comes from a white clawed crayfish. These animals are not common in the UK as they need the water to be rich in calcium. This requirement is fulfilled in the Eden valley by the limestone substrate. I think that the River Eden is as far North as theses animals get. I know that there are crayfish in this part of the system because for a number of years I have volunteered with the Eden Rivers Trust to survey them. It was not uncommon to find a couple of hundred animals in a 300m stretch of river. The following images give an indication of scale. In recent years the population of the native white clawed crayfish has been threatened by the arrival of the invasive signal (...
Read more

Otters

-
 Well another Covid lockdown! As I am confined to the local area I have been having a closer look at the local wildlife. I treated myself to a trail cam and started to see what I could find. After a couple of experimental sessions to get to know the kit I set the camera along a fence line by an old railway track. On the first night I was astonished to get footage of an otter carrying a rabbit! The site is at least 500m from a watercourse which is a drainage ditch that eventually flows into a tiny tributary of the River Eden I hadn't realised that otters eat anything other than fish but apparently they do. I wonder why the otter was carrying the rabbit rather than eating it where it was found. Perhaps it was feeding young? Apparently ottters have young throughout the year. I have only seen an otter near the house once before and that was a late night encounter in the car headlights.
Read more