With the cold weather receding a little it is getting much busier in Emthree, though flora and fauna still seems to be behind.
22 April. Made a positive identification of a small plant of broad buckler-fern Dryopteris dilatata with one frond unfurling just behind the log across the middle of Emthree.
Interesting that the spore cases, the small pale green dots, are already well-formed.
21 April. More creatures are now appearing underneath the New Gingerbread Refuge. Today there were several pseudoscorpions (walking backwards as usual).
And a small black mite, a very common species in habitats like this, with a springtail next to it.
I have decided to make an exclosure in the open area between the Square Metre and Medlar Wood. The ground here is trampled by various animals and still brown and ungrateful look after a long winter. It will be interesting to see what grazing protection delivers.
16 April 2013. When I was about to leave Emthree I noticed what I though was a small piece of black stick protruding from the ground near the tall birch. It is clearly a Xylaria fungus, with a stalk and a long, narrow spore bearing body (on the left). It most nearly resembles the American Xylaria scopiformis: more work to be done on this one.
15 April 2013. There are many tiny non-biting midges now swarming every evening in the lee of Bramble Hedge. They are Limnophyes minimus and I suspect they breed in the mud of Midsummer Pond and other wet places in the vicinity.
Underneath New Gingerbread Refuge a pair of pill millipedes has appeared looking very affectionate. They are long lived invertebrates: I wonder if they mate for life. The mollusc on the left is a discus snail.
