Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
10th October 2009
Some flowering plants still have late flowers on them, including the thistles shown
on this page. At school, there has been a late flowering of dandelions, which are
normally spring-
On a wall, some old ivy which was clipped about a year ago has, nevertheless, put out lots of flowers. As usual, these are attracting many wasps and bees. On one sunny day this week, I also saw a red admiral feeding from the flowers. A noticeable absence is the honeybees. These would have been seen a decade ago but wild colonies of this species have been destroyed by the varroa mite. It is now unusual to see a honeybee on the flowers as there are no longer beehives in the school grounds.
During a short walk by the Barnsley Canal earlier today, I was on the lookout for fungi. I didn’t see a wide variety but there were numerous fly agarics beneath the silver birches which grow there. The fly agarics were quite large but weren’t heavily spotted.