ED Nature Watch

[SteveT]

Do they carry little lamps ruffers?

[SteveT]

Hooray! it's raining and we are well over due for a soaking.

Now I don't have to hose down the fruit and veg.

[mlteenie]

I found two newts which proceeded to play dead but their beady little eyes gave them away. V cute little things with spotty orange tummies. Couple of frogs too.

[Karrie]

[Deleted] Safety reasons

[sophiesofa]

I took this on my phone in peckham rye park on monday. Just thought i'd share.

[Moos]

Nice pic, sophiesofa! I think a lot of us have a soft spot for the heron.

[Karrie]

[Deleted] Safety reasons

[BrandNewGuy]

One crafty fox has started stashing chicken bones etc in a builders' skip on our road. S/he has a quick glance around, then jumps into the skip, unearths some grub and jumps out with a bite to eat. Very resourceful :-)

[SteveT]

I dug up a length of lawn to make room for a late crop of peas,

but before planting I have sprinkled lime pellets over it,

it has not been turned over for years.

I shall wait for the expected thundery downpour to reach the parts other lime pellets cannot reach.

I have a thornless blackberry in flower and the bees love it, so I guess it gives out lots of nectar, when I was tying it back they were getting really buzzy warning me off not to disturb them, so I left them to it.

[Sue]

Moos Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Nice pic, sophiesofa! I think a lot of us have a

> soft spot for the heron.

xxxxxxx

Yesterday afternoon we saw three herons at the lake.

We think they are a pair with a young (teenaged?) one.

And yes, we saw them all at the same time :)

The largest one was on the main island in the middle, the next largest was on one of the smaller islands, and the smallest started off at one point on the main island, then moved to a tree on the other side of the island.

Somebody also seems to have put a very lifelike plastic duckling into the water :))

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Did you also notice the hundreds of baby minnows swimming around? It's quite sweet watching the young coots trying to catch them just for fun.

[Sue]

Yes, saw loads of minnows in the streams, not in the lake tho.

[SteveT]

Saw the duck call out to her chicks and they instantly went under water together, the reason, the heron was getting very close.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I've spotted three patches of what I think may be deadly nightshade in P.Rye Park. I'm happy to report it but before I start a major panic, could someone else have a gander please and confirm it? The biggest lot is at the corner of the Adventure Playground, opposite Waverley School.

[Sue]

Woody nightshade is also poisonous I think, so maybe you should report it anyway - also does it look wild, or does it look cultivated? (The decorative plant Solanum has a similar flower I think, all members of the potato family??)

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

They look wild - definitely potato-type leaves with purple flowers. I shall look up Solanum and check.

[Sue]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum

[Penguin68]

There is also a similar plant - Woody Nightshade - it looks quite similar, with the same sort of purple flowers and black berries but is more woody and, well, less deadly (but still quite poisonous, just not fatal). It grows wild in my garden, when I let it.

Searching on Google will give you loads of images to match it too, in all states (flowers, berries, foliage).

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Groan - I just don't know! Perhaps safest to report it and risk abject humiliation.

[Sue]

Penguin68 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> There is also a similar plant - Woody Nightshade -

> it looks quite similar, with the same sort of

> purple flowers and black berries but is more woody

>

xxxxxx

I may be wrong but I believe Woody Nightshade berries are a different colour to Deadly Nightshade, not black.

[Penguin68]

Sue

You are quite right - the berries are red - they dry off to a deeper brown/ black and it was the remains of last year's berries I had been looking at before I wrote. Apologies - but you'd have to wait to the autumn to tell the difference when the berries ripen, I think they both start off green before final colouration.

[bonniebird]

Has anybody else seen a house sparrow on the meadow opp Piermont Green in the park in the trees around the bog? I may be wrong, but it looked like one. I live in Forest Hill and am being woken every morning by a family of house sparrows in the eves of my house (tu):))

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Spoke to Head Gardener and showed him a 'cutting'. He's not sure either so he's asked me to walk him round tomorrow and show him the patches to determine what they are. I'm leaning more towards woody, but he thought initially deadly, so we'll find out tomorrow.

[Sue]

Please pass on the message to the Head Gardener that the garden (not sure what it's called, the one with all the perennials) is looking great, as are the beds with the grasses (Stipa tenuissima I think) outside it.

But I would dearly like to know who thought bright blue water in the fountain was a good idea. Or has a mischievous person put something in? The same person who put the plastic duckling in the lake, perhaps!

:)

Edited to say: My guess is the nightshade is the Woody one.

[Pickle]

Sue, there was a note up at the fountain last week saying it was being cleaned, hence the blue colour. I haven't been for a few days... is it still blue?!