wildlife

[Anthony Darby]

In some plants leaf toxicity increases with age of leaf.

[johnw]

Won't munching rhododendrons poison it?  A friend here though that deer died in her garden after browsing rhodos.

They have eaten thousands of rhododendrons from a friend's nursery, lepidotes, elepidotes, and all azaleas.  They've also eaten rows & rows of yew, an entire field of hollies (excluding I. pedunculosa and I. opaca), all the euonymus and so it goes. None have died.  This usually happens in the very early hours of the morning between mid-December and late February.

Anthony  - Toxicity doesn't seem to affect the INTRODUCED white-tailed deer here.  As for Narcissus they bite off the flower then drop them.  Prunus laurocerasus apparently is very toxic in winter but edible in summer.  The province is crawling with deer and they surely must be disrupting ecology.

Turned out the piebald was eating a blue holly down.....

john

[Roma]

Roe deer have eaten rhododendrons in my garden and I remember a golden yew being eaten by deer in the Cruickshank Garden.Their metabolism must be designed to cope with a certain amount of toxic material.

[Anthony Darby]

I can understand eating holly. European holly increases the number of spines on its leaves the closer to the ground they grow to deter browsing. It's an interesting biology project we used to do in Scotland.

[johnw]

Anthony  - We've watched deer eat the spiniest English holly.  It wrapped its tongue around the stem and pulled all the leaves off and ate them.  We cringed in horror, they could have been eating Creme Caramel.  As well we were told Taxus baccata was immune but they ate an entire row of one variety whose name escapes me.

john

[Anthony Darby]

This is the problem with introduced species. Co-evolution has not occurred.

[ian mcdonald]

I have seen red deer eating bracken when it is young. Holly used to be fed to cattle in harsh winters in yorks.

[Roma]

I found this moth among pots in the frame.  I thought at first it was a yellow underwing but the forewing pattern is different and it doesn't have the yellow hind wings.  It behaved in the same way - reluctant to fly and clung on to my finger when I picked it up.

[mark smyth]

It's a dark arches Apamea monoglypha

[Anthony Darby]

Not sure what they've sprayed on our local football pitches, but there are thousands of dead worms that are not present in the areas away from the playing surface. It has rained over the last couple of days, but that's not the cause.

[Maggi Young]

Not sure what they've sprayed on our local football pitches, but there are thousands of dead worms that are not present in the areas away from the playing surface. It has rained over the last couple of days, but that's not the cause.

  Crikey,  I'd be worried about what residual poison anyone using the pitches might  pick up. Children falling about on it, or animals running over it.   

[Roma]

It's a dark arches Apamea monoglypha

Thanks, Mark.  It is well camouflaged.

[Anthony Darby]

Here are some photos of said worms. I know they put a selective weed killer on last week, but there were fresh vehicle tracks yesterday suggesting something else had been put down. I occasionally see little blue pellets of fertiliser.

[Anthony Darby]

Here are the weird frothy blobs that were on the same pitch yesterday lunchtime. Looked like a rabid dog had wandered across the pitch, stopping every so often to rid itself of all the slavery froth from its mouth!

[David Lyttle]

The frothy blobs are a slime mould,  Dog Vomit Slime Mould (Fuligo septica) is usually yellow. There is another species that has been recorded in New Zealand Mucilago crustacea which is white and is known as Dog Sick Slime Mould.