Finlay – The Naturalist

For the last three months I have been out on regular bimbles with my son Finlay to observe and learn about nature for his Naturalist badge at Cubs.

This is not an easy badge to obtain and takes three months to complete with a number of different standards to meet (some of the standards have different options to choose from).

The standards/options Finlay chose to do were:

  1. Observe a natural area over a three month period a number of times to observe and record changes in nature
  2. Learn to identify six trees and six wild flowers
  3. Learn the Country Code
  4.  Build a Bug Hotel

Rather than just observe one natural area we spotted three good areas around the village to observe.  We visited each area five times  over three months to observe the changes occurring in nature.

Area 1 – Scrubland

This site was next to one of his playgrounds and initially seemed very promising (in the hope we would see a variety of different spring flowers) with all the Dandelion seed heads. They were still there on our second visit however the thick grass seemed to be inhibiting the growth of many of the spring flowers we were hoping to see.

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Area 1 – Scrubland – Visits 1 & 2

Over the following visits we spotted a few White Campion flowers and some Green Alkanet however it was the grasses,  Docks and Cleavers (Sticky Willy) that seemed to dominate in the end. Finlay seemed happy with that as I usually found loads of Cleaver strands stuck to my back when we got home 🙂

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Area 1 – Scrubland – Visits 3, 4 & 5

Area 2 – The Pond

I have been observing a particular pond in our village over the years and knew it would be good for Finlay to observe changes in nature.

The pond is full Reedmace (aka Cattail), Iris, and ringed by Marsh Marigolds and Mare’s Tail.  Initially all the growth was very subdued however you can see in the second picture below (2nd visit) that there was far more shade as the plants had started to grow. Finlay is in the same spot in each picture to observe and act as a measure to the growth.

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Area 2 – The Pond – Visits 1 & 2

There is always something happening at the pond with wildlife. Usually we disturbed a duck or two but we did spot plenty of frogs and insects. One visit we found a dead pidgeon by the side of the pond and noticed that the Iris had started to  produce its seed heads near the end of our visits.

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Area 2 – The Pond – Spots

Over the last 3 visits the Iris and the Reedmace soon came to dominate the pond and the outer ring of Marsh Marigolds generally died back.

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Area 2 – The Pond – Visits 3, 4 & 5 

Area 3 – The Stream

We have a culvert near our house and there is a good patch of Reedmace growing beside it. This spot I thought ideal to show Finlay how quickly this plant grows.

Initially it was the last years growth that dominated the stream with a lot of Hedge Garlic growing beside it. Over the subsequent visits the spring flowers all died off and the Reedmace shot up.

The growth you can see below happened over a two and a half month period.

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Area 3 – The Stream – Visits 1 to 4

On our last visit we spotted that the pollen spikes of the Reedmace had appeared. These are a great plant for any bushcrafter as the young spikes can be boiled and eaten, the roots are edible as well as the young plant shoots.

As this plant grows frequently beside (as seen by the pond) its lookalike poisonous neighbour – Iris, learn to 100% identify both plants before attempting to forage Reedmace.

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Area 3 – The Stream – Visit 5

Trees and Flowers

Over the last three months we studied our trees and wildflower as well as Finlay had to learn to identify six trees and six wildflowers.

For trees we focused on Oak, Hawthorn, Sycamore, Beech, Holly and Hazel. We started this on our first forage way back in  in May when we went out on our first foraging hike together – Foraging with Finlay. He is pretty confident with most of the trees now however he still has to think about some of them. We remember them by shapes i.e. the star for Sycamore, ear lobes for Oak, spikes for Holly etc.

Some of the flowers we saw regularly included White Campion, Forget-me-nots and Herb Robert. I think he struggles with White Campion as that one disappeared early but then again not many people can easily identify it.

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Trees and Flowers

One he does remember easily is Green Alkannet (something to do with the blue flower and it having the word ‘Green’ in its title I think), Self Heal and Wild Strawberries. The white flowers of Strawberries he remembered well, in anticipation of the feast we had on the last visit.

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Flowers and Foraging

It was not all learn, learn, learn as we had lots of fun along the way. Sometimes his sister Catherine joined us, there was lots of time spent in the parks , some beautiful insects were spotted and best of all we got muddy and spent quality time together.

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Extras

The Countryside Code

We spent time talking about how we treat the countryside while out and about. When I was a young lad we all had to be able to recite the country code however that list has now fallen out of favour now. The main aims now are to ‘Respect, Protect and Enjoy’ the countryside. Our trips would touch on these aims and a good pamphlet on the current code can be found here at the Peak District website.

The Bug Hotel

The last  standard for the badge was to build something for nature. We opted for a Bug hotel in the garden. Finlay, Catherine and one of his friends (another Finlay) spent a long time collecting and building their Bug hotel. I wrote a separate post on this titled – Building the Bug Hotel.

The Bug Hotel

It has been great fun working on this project with Finlay. He really deserves his Naturalist badge now and I look forward to working on some of these more challenging badges with him in the future. One day he will no longer need me to help him but in the meantime I intend to get out and about with him as much as possible.

Cheers

George

Picture of the Week – Week 23 – A Simple Moment in Time

A picture from a week ago in the depths of Pippingford Park in the Ashdown Forest. I chose this picture due to the perfect framing the canopy gave the cadets and the reedmace you can see on the left.

Adventuring On
Adventuring On

I had stopped to photograph something else and as I turned around I spotted the cadets moving off, so quick as a flash I snapped this simple moment in time before it disappeared forever.

As a photographer I am continually looking for these moments in time, they are rare but they are out there.

Cheers

George

Picture of the Week – Week 21 – Quality Time

Reviewing my pictures this week I kept on coming back to this one. I would not say it was in anyway a brilliant shot however it is a shot of ‘Quality Time’ – that is time well spent with my daughter Catherine teaching her to use her new camera. She was really taken with all the yellow iris flowers and last years reedmace stalks.

Quality Time
Quality Time

Catherine I feel has a good eye for a picture so it is not hard to work alongside her. This was the first time she had tried out the monopod stand with the camera. Here’s to lots more Quality Time out and about 🙂

Cheers

George

Nature Challenge – Day 2 – Tadpole Tracking

Day 2 of this Nature Challenge found me back home in Bramley. I am really struggling to walk at the moment so I cheated today and jumped into my car and headed off down to one of the ponds in my village.

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Spots along the way

I thought it was time to see what life I could spot in the pond. Along the way I spotted some lovely wild strawberries in amongst the primroses as well as some yellow archangel. Beside it all the arum was starting to push up their spadix ready to transform themselves into things of beauty.

The pond I visited has had tv’s and other detritus dumped into it but it is still quite beautiful ringed with marsh marigolds and a centre of reedmace. There was a slight oil sheen on the surface but that did not seem to hinder the wildlife in any way.

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The Pond

I soon spotted some tadpoles in amongst the decaying material in the pond however on the right you can see a catkin (the pond was strewn with them) from a pussy willow tree.

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Spotted one of the little fellas

In my attempts to get a close shot of a tadpole (they do move fast) I inadvertently snapped a catkin. The complexity and beauty up close of the catkin really surprised me.

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Fine detail – Pussy Willow

Finally I managed to get a half way decent shot of the little fellas. Not the most fearsome creature to track down but they sure are a difficult one to pin down and photograph 🙂

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Thousands appeared

Cheers

George

Picture of the Week – Week 12 – The Sit Spot

Welcome to the view from my favourite ‘Sit Spot’ near where I live.

To those that are not familiar with the term Sit Spot it is a place to go and sit in a comfortable manner and observe the beauty of nature around you.

The Sit Spot
The Sit Spot

This reedmace fringed pond near my village in Hampshire has plenty of activity from fish, voles, waterfowl, dragonflies and nocturnal visits from deer and badger (plenty of tracks to testify to this).

I like to sit here for a half hour or so on some of my bimbles to quietly re-connect myself with the goings on with mother nature all around me.

Get out there and find your own Sit Spot and re-connect with nature – it is not hard.

Cheers

George

Picture of the Week – Week 8 – Life and Death

My good friend Rick popped over to visit me today and we went for a Bimble around the village in the afternoon.

There were plenty of Daffodils and Lesser Celandine on show and even a few Snowdrops still hanging around but other than that all was pretty quiet on the flower front.

When we got to one of the village ponds I was saw that only the Yellow Iris was starting to show through so had a quick look and was about to head off.

Contrasts - Life and Death
Contrasts – Life and Death

Rick though mentioned that he liked the contrast of life and death between the Iris and the Reedmace. I could see his point but until I got right down and took this picture at a very low angle did I truly see what he meant.

As an aside to all this I managed to damage my ear drum when I lay down on my side to take the picture. I felt an intense pain in my right ear and realised a dead stalk of some plant or other had gone into my ear – here’s hoping the pain does not get worse.

Cheers

George

Picture of the Week – Week 1

So begins a New Year and I was considering where my photography would take me this year. After a long hard thought (about 10 minutes really) I came to the conclusion my photography could go wherever it liked.

So I plan to have a post once a week with what I consider my best or most interesting picture.

On New Year’s Eve I took a bimble around our village and was seeing lots of signs of spring (a bit early if you ask me) when I spotted this leftover morsel from last year.

Forgotten Hazelnut
Forgotten hazelnut

Normally the squirrels beat me to these little nibbles so I was surprised to see some still left over from last year’s crop. This hazel tree was overhanging a reedmace-covered pond so maybe it proved too precarious a perch for the little fellas.

Cheers

George