Autumn colours

 Autumn's well under way now and back as early as the 26th August the bracken (left) was turning at Corrimony.

This year has generally been fairly wet this far north and not, it seems, a good year for the development of some fruits. I've been checking fallen Hazel cobs recently and haven't found a kernel more developed than the one below which was 5mm across instead of about 13mm.

The Bird Cherry (bottom) on the other hand, is fully grown but these tiny seeds (3mm) are not going to help squirrels who would normally be enjoying the autumn Hazel crop.

I haven't seen any Rowan berries either, this year, other than one bush in a Glen Urquhart forest car park. I don't know what they're like in the wider area but people tell me there is a lot of fruit down south, which of course, has been a lot sunnier.

While on the subject of autumn colours, you may have noticed the change of colour scheme for these pages. I'd tired of funereal black and decided to brighten up the presentation. I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy with the way it looks so far, so there may be more changes to come.

Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) Food for a Wood Mouse ?

Every spring I give the van a once over and fix any problems ready for the annual MOT test in May.

At the beginning of April this year I had an issue with fuel contamination and the van was parked up for a few days waiting for a fuel filter.

When the filter arrived I opened the bonnet and just behind the filter housing I discovered that, what I assumed was a mouse or vole had created a food store containing fruit stones which it appeared to have been cracking open for the seeds.

These little stones were about 5 x 4 mm and upon investigation, turned out to be from last years crop of Bird Cherries.

It presented an opportunity to illustrate that the "mouse" appeared to crack them longitudinally, in much the same way that squirrels open Hazel nuts.

There is however, one small problem with this. Mice and voles don't crack, they gnaw and the only animals to open cherry stones in this way, of which I am aware are the Greenfinch and Hawfinch.

This of course raises the question of what was a Finch doing up inside the engine compartment of a motor vehicle.

Neither can I imagine that a mouse or vole would go to the effort of carrying opened stones to a food cache when they present no nutritional value.

All in all it's a bit of a mystery which I may never get to the bottom of; but if anyone has anything they can add to this I would be really pleased to hear from you.

Images on the left are:

From the top.  The cache of stones from the engine compartment.

Flowers

Bark

Suckers

and at the bottom are, I believe, galls induced by the larvae of a mite.


You can find much more information about Bird Cherry by visiting this "Trees for Life" species profile page