Macro Monday, A closer look at a bridge.

If you want to take part in Macro Monday, visit Lisa's blog and sign up.
Shiny marble like pieces of stony among the Ivy, stone, soil and Moss.
,(there are only small bits of stone visible in fact. Nevertheless, it did deserve a closer look)





We used to live next to this little bridge, for 13 years or so. It lets you pass over the river which surrounded us on two sides. (The old ground floor cottage was where you now see the new house, behind the blue shed)
(spring 2009)
This river was also home to a Kingfisher and we once had an Otter basking on a boulder, to the left of the bridge.
I was hoping to find some kind of Invertebrate among the bits and pieces of the wall of the bridge, but no luck.

Ivy roots.




And other bits of stone:






I love it the kind of shapes you can find on stone.












And then there is the Moss of course.




Dead Henbit Nettle, Lamium amplexicaule
growing just around the corner.

And very difficult to take photos of, because it is only 17-20cm high and so a long way from me.

Hawkbits growing on the bridge.







Plus grasses on the bridge.

The Coming of the green....

Lesser Celendine, Ramunuculus ficaria
At the start of the new year, everyone is eagerly waiting for the first green leaf, sprout, or any other sign that life in the garden has started again, hence the people here talking of The Coming of the Green.

Like in the previous months, the Blackbird was still present in every field, hedgerow, trees and gardens that I passed. And Blue Tits were singing everywhere. Did they also have spring in their little minds? Were they looking for probable nest sites, already? And shouldn't all those Blackbirds not be returning back to the continent? Or are they waiting for the right wind? The present southern galeforce wind is not very helpful when you need to fly east.

Ferns too, are celebrating the arrival of spring. The spores at the underside of their leaves, are their way of propagating when the spores are travelling on the wind, to settle and germinating in a new place. I'm afraid that most of these spores will end up in the river below the bridge, although the galeforce winds of the last few days might well have stolen some in its grip.

And these I found further on the road. It surprised me that this flower of another Lesser Celendine, had opened fully already. It was growing in a very dark corner. The trees above it casting a dark shadow over it, and the Sun not, or hardly ever, being able to reach it.

The banks of the river, cleared of the invasive Gunnera or Giant Rhubarb, Gunnera tinctoria.


Lichen was also settling onto the bridge. And a few bits of Moss too.


As is the Woodsorrel, Oxalis acetosella.

These lovely little flowers I have not seen before, and I suspect that the owner of the house behind the fence, has planted these themselves, or that it is a garden escape. Any suggestions are very welcome.

The Wild Ivy, Hedera helix, does not show that many left over berries any more. Despite birds preferring to feed on red or orange berries, this winter they had to eat whatever they could find.

This tiny flower I find at the rectory, underneath the row of Sweet Chestnuts. It was spread out over about a metre or more, but I could not find its ID yet. Any clues are welcome.

The unopened flower bud reminded me of the days I was rolling my own tobacco. It just looks like a rolled cigarette paper.:

Dandelion.

I found this leafmine on some Bramble leaves from last year, and the leaf reminded me of photos of a leafmine which I'd seen on Stuart's wildlife blog, Donegal Wildlife, in his post, Still snowy.
I think that this is the Leafmine, Stigmella aurella.



I am not sure if it is the same Leaf mine, as the one Stuart saw on his walk, but I like what he says about them:

"Leaf-miners are always worth a look: the plant they live on, can be a very strong clue to species, and it is interesting to see the different strategies they use to avoid falling out of the leaf.
Mines are made of species of Flies, Sawflies, Micromoths and Weevils. The shape of the mine can usually tell us to which family a particular mine belongs"

Memories on top of a little bridge

Those who read my post on Mosses and Lichen, should not be surprised that I went on another hunt after Mosses. These photos I took at the bridge at the river alongside Riverside Cottage, and behind the Church of Ireland. I used to sit often on top of this little bridge, with Whitie, our dog beside me when we lived here with the river enclosing us on two sides. I would not be bothered by the cars which would pass me on their way to bring or collect their child to the little primary school.More often though, would I choose the quiet times, when I would observe the Grey Mullet swimming below me, and the King Fisher which would fly via the bridge to and fro its two favourite sites, its fishing spot behind our cottage, and where I would watch from one of the great big boulders in the river, and its home in the bank below the Church of Ireland. It has moved on now, and I haven't seen a flash of blue here since the 80s/early 90s, I think. We'd spotted the Otter baking in the Sun on top of a boulder in the river from the bridge, one day when Francis had gone out to put the rubbish out. He called me out quickly and it was an amazing sight, an animal whose body and expression embody the act of relaxing. Not that these creatures have an easy life, far from it. Having lived here now for 21 years in this village, this summer's sighting of an Otter in the bay, was only my 2nd sight of a Wild Otter.

There were several different patches of Moss on the stone of the bridge, and although it seems as if it was 3 separate species, it might just have been two. The
one in the last photo reminded me a little of Catherine's Moss (Atrichum undulatum) which was featured in the BBC Wildlife Magazine-page 12, this in the November issue. It is not the same one, far from it, I'd say, it was the little spiky stems with seed pods. I never even thought of opening one up, but I might do that tomorrow if the weaher is as good as the forecast with lessened winds.





Bryum capillare


Along the backroad along the valley and parallel to the hills between Dunmanus Bay and Bantry Bay, and connecting the hill just above the village (where I live now) and one where I usually go on a botany hunt, was the little road we used to take to Riverside, walking back after a few drinks in the village. A late friend, Manuel, a Portugese octgenarian, used to say he was going to walk home via the Alps, and I can still hear him say so whenever I think of, or travel on, the little road. These late flowering Wild Roses were watching over the valley:





These little 'white' blooms caught my eye this time, last year,telling me that I had to come back with the camera and take a few pictures, in an effort to find out what these are, but of course I never did. I almost passed them with the same, "I'll do these pictures in a few days time, when I stopped realising that it might take another year before I did so.

Lichen and Moss- brittle and soft.

Sometimes it is hard to understand how large mammals like Reindeer can survive on Lichen as their main fresh food underneath the snow.

I have been fascinated by this fact and what it does tell me, -I think- is that there must be quite a bit of goodness in the little buggers.







Three weeks ago, I stopped when I spotted a small fallen branch on the road, underneath 2 Scotch Pines which grow above on top of the bank, which consists mainly their roots.


The trees are growing on top of a -dry-stone, I suspect- wall, and there are some gaps or small ledges here and there in the wall of sand and roots on top.

With my little grabber, which I carry behind me in my wheels, day and night, I picked it up carefully and then placed it in one of these ledges.

The bank/trees are just visible here in this picture I posted on Birding on wheels the other day.
(the bank is not really a stone wall anymore, it is real compacted clay -a tidalriver is behind it and the bay about 30metres backwards.

I placed it there because I had to move my wheels- it was around 4pm and I needed to get to the side of the road. I took around 50 photos there, then too the branch home on my lap, very carefully so I would not damage the delicate 'leaf' structure.
Here I took about 50 photos more and it is still lying in my window, the idea was-and still is, is to find a nice place for it outside.

Yesterday I did a whirlwind tour of my local patch. I had been late and slow that morning and good not get going really. Because of this, I was also late in getting to the shop. then needed to get home first before going out again.
I'd have preferred an outing in the morning at Low Tide. Now, at High tide, not one bird was present in the bay. Only ones I spotted were 3 Hooded Crows in a tree across the road, and later, 4 young Jackdaws, imitating a Rook's call. Many drivers, going past, must have wondered what I was looking for as they saw me, scanning the top of the tree and the telephone cables in my effort to locate the culprit.

All I could see were the Jackdaws though, and neither did I spot any other copy catting birds. An adult Daw soon came from across the road, yelling loudly, and trying to tell the youngsters they were acting dangerously with a Rooks roosting tree not that far off.
They did indeed fly off after having been told off.

Almost home, I met up with a lovely dog with an injured leg, and its owner, and the sudden sight of a Song Thrush, made me turn around and followed the road back to the bay and took the backroad home.
I thuoght I might see a Redwing here. I did not see any other birds, but a few little Blue Tits which were going around above my head, what I did meet was a clump of these and also some Moss. Which, like the Lichen, challenged me to quite a number of photos.
Of course these had to be cut down to a more manageable number, which I managed eventually.
Last night I was reading about the Catherine Moss, in the November issue of the BBC Wildlife Magazine which has large spores and which grows underneath shrubs.
I have seen other species of Moss this summer, with taller and very thin 'fronds. Now I still have to remember where this was.
What I did notice, yesterday and before then, is that we see a lot less Mosses than we used to.
I now remember that the other Moss specie I was thinking of grows near the river and along the coast road. Unfortunately, the weather is not very promising and perhaps I might be able to stay dry for a few more than 15-120 minutes on Sunday, if I throw precaution into the I do hope so.

These are photos of the Moss which I took yesterday





And a few more Lichen