OAKMOSS
Despite its name, it is actually lichen - Oakmoss grows primarily on the trunk and branches of Oak trees, but can also be found growing...
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CANADA GOOSE
In bed, awake at midnight, I hear them calling to each other in the darkness as they fly overhead. Out in the snow yesterday, the same...
3
YELLOW BRAIN
Also known as Golden Jelly, Witches Butter or Yellow Trembler is a jelly fungus (helpfully named because they look like jelly, not...
9
LARCH
These common trees are unusual in that they are deciduous conifers – their green needles go orange-brown in autumn and fall. There are...
4
PIED WAGTAIL
My battered old copy of the Observer’s Book of British Birds notes that this is also known as the Water Wagtail or Dish-washer (no, me...
4
BARN OWL
You can see these incredible birds hunting in the fields and hedgerows just to the east of Otley, a habitat set to be destroyed by the...
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EUROPEAN HOLLY
Their winter-ripening red berries and glossy green leaves bring natural colour into our homes at Christmas, and also into our woods,...
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LITTLE EGRET
These small white herons still seem quite exotic to me – more a bird of the Nile (or at least the Dordogne) than the Wharfe. Many UK...
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SHIELD LICHEN
Lichens are a symbiosis, a composite organism emerging from algae or cyanobacteria living among the filaments of fungi. Algae or...
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VELVET SHANK
Fairly common around Otley, especially down by the river this year, it is most commonly found on Ash trees, but can also be found on...
2
KING ALFREDS CAKES
We don’t know for certain that the story of the king letting the peasant woman’s cakes burn is true, but he was a really interesting...
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TREECREEPER
We don’t have many birds with curved bills, and I’m struggling to think of another small one. You can see them spiralling up and round...
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TIGER WORM
You can buy these earthworms, because they are particularly good at rapidly processing organic waste into nutrient-rich compost, but the...
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SCOTS PINE
Pine trees can leave me a bit cold – I’m thinking of David Bellamy’s “arboreal slums” – lines of monotonous ever-greens in dark...
15
TROOPING CRUMBLE CAP
Also known as Fairy Ink Cap, they are quite common at this time of year, and fairly easy to spot as they always form dense mats over dead...
260
MIXED FLOCK OF TITS
One of the great joys of Autumn for me, along with the changing colour of the leaves, are mixed flocks of tits flittering around the...
349
WHITE SADDLE MUSHROOM
Looking like something has chewed it up and spat it out, the white saddle mushroom is one of those fungi that look otherworldly strange...
31
MOORHEN
One of the world’s commonest birds, these are easy to spot down at the Gallows Hill ponds, though they come out of the water much more...
6
PIXY CUP LICHEN
Similes abound for this distinctive lichen – it is also compared with golf tees and even Shrek’s ears – but the pixie reference is...
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COMMON IVY
There are two native subspecies of Ivy in the UK – one that climbs and one that spreads across the ground. There are many great examples...
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