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Probably my favourite insect, though not one I associate with Otley, more with holidays in France, but here we have a video to prove the recent presence of one in our town. Climate change is contributing to an increase in sightings north of their usual haunts, and it is believed that some now over-winter in southern England. The resemblance to hummingbirds is striking when you see them hovering by flowers and using their very lengthy proboscis to extract the nectar from the p

These are the chestnuts that you can eat, once you’ve extracted them from their formidable spiky cases and cooked them to help remove the tough skin. People have been doing so for hundreds of years, sometimes cultivating them for that purpose, and apparently Roman soldiers were given chestnut porridge before going into battle. The strong timber is useful, too. The trees are known for their longevity: one on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily is thought to be as old as 4000 ye

An intriguing looking shield bug, the shoulders of the Forest bug are very distinctive and distinguish them from other shield bugs. I spotted this guy whilst walking with a good friend along the river, when we also spotted a Dipper, Grey Wagtail and Kingfisher! Forest bugs are mainly herbivorous, feeding on the sap of deciduous trees, particularly oaks but also alder and hazel growing along sheltered woodland edges or in clearings. Some adults feed on fruit or may even be par

Another wort in flower right now, also known as clown's woundwort, clown's heal-all and marsh hedgenettle. Its traditional use was to promote the healing of wounds. Its typical habitat is near the shore of lakes, in marshes, on the banks of ditches and streams, in damp meadows, in arable ground and in waste places, this one was spotted growing on the banks of the river towards pool. As a member of the mint family, it has a rapid spreading habit, the flowers grow in whirls on

Also (more prosaically) know as the Common Garden Spider, it’s worth overcoming any inclinations to arachnophobia to examine the intricate markings on its abdomen and legs. Common around Otley, they bring fascinating modes of sex and violence into your garden. The former, in that the female sometimes eats the male after (or even during!) mating; the latter in that prey is bitten and injected with enzymes that both paralyze it and start to liquify its insides. The spider then

Autumn is almost here but there are still wildflowers to be found. I found this one finding its way through the wooden slats of the dipping platform at Gallows Hill. A lot of wild plants have wort in their name, before Linnaeus, the guy who created the latin naming of plants, plants were either named wort if they were thought to be useful or weed if they weren’t. Bugglewort is also known as Gypsywort, its reputed medicinal qualities include as an astringent, cosmetic, douche,

This month as summer draws to an end and autumn begins, shrew numbers are at their peak! They have had a busy few months of feeding and breeding, pretty much the two things they do best! In ideal shrew habitat, it is thought that around 70 individuals could inhabit a single hectare. The abundance of insects throughout the summer is the reason for this peak, but as we enter winter many shrews’ already short lives (average 15 months) are cut even shorter. The Common Shrew has

The name of this fungus is spot on. You can find it growing on both living and dead wood all around Otley, mostly on Elder. It is edible (if you are 100% certain in your identification), and is used a lot in Chinese cuisine – they used to import large quantities from Australia. It has been much-used in folk medicine around the world, and modern science has subsequently given many of these traditional treatments credence. Children delight in feeling its texture, part fascinate

Walk the riverbank between Gallows Hill and Knotford Nook at the moment, and the distinctive spiky brown seed-heads of the Teasel are easy to spot on their tall stalks. Goldfinches love to extract the seeds from these. Teasel used to be harvested, so that the seed-heads could be used in the textile industry to tease out the fibres on fabrics such as wool. Interestingly, studies suggest teasel is in a sense carnivorous. It collects rainwater in the cups formed where the leaves

The UK has most of the world’s Heather moorland, and of course the Chevin benefits from its mauve flowers at this time of year. Before the nineteenth century it actually had negative associations with rural poverty. Historically, people have put it to a wide range of uses: thatch, fodder, bedding, fuel, brooms and (before the use of hops) beer. Then there’s the distinctive heather honey – you should be able to buy some made by Ilkley Moor bees at Stephen Smith’s. Heather nect

As a teacher, I like to tell my children that the common call of the Great Tit is “tea-cher, tea-cher”, but their communication skills are actually really quite sophisticated. So, for example, one study found they make different alarm calls for different predators, and another found that birds living near the M25 have changed the pitch of their calls to be heard over the roar of the traffic. The change is so substantial that it’s thought that in coming years they will not be

The humble earthworm is actually both interesting and vital. Its skin performs a range of useful functions. It breathes through it, needing to keep it moist to facilitate the absorption of dissolved oxygen. Conversely, on wet days like today, they may come out of the soil because their burrows have flooded and they can’t breathe. The skin also has receptor cells sensitive to light and touch (worms don’t have eyes), and it is covered in bristles that move in and out, enabling

The clusters of bright red berries on the Guelder Rose bushes at Gallows Hill look fantastic in today’s sunshine. Guelder refers to a province of the Netherlands, but it is in Slavic countries where this plant is really culturally prominent. In the Ukraine the plant is referred to in songs and poems, and features in decorative art – the berries symbolize one’s home, blood and family roots, but also on occasion beauty. It is also one of the national symbols of Russia, with the

When the British Isles were covered with huge swathes of forest, Silver Birch was one of the dominant species. Although these woodlands have shrunk dramatically, there are still plenty of Birch to be seen around Otley. The bark is more white than silver, but these trees support a lot of wildlife, not least because their fractured canopy allows a lot of light down to the shrub and ground layers below. It is a pioneer species, in that it is one of the first to grow again in dis

The name derives from this seed-eater’s habit of searching through the chaff for grain after the farmer has threshed their crop. During the breeding season their diet switches to invertebrates. An old name for a Chaffinch is a Spink, which reflects their call. Chaffinches are one of those birds that have regional dialects, and a study revealed that if a young bird is not exposed to its father’s song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn

This common plant with bright yellow flowers was rated in the UK top ten for nectar production and thus plays an important role for Otley pollinators. It has a lengthy flowering period from June to November, and can produce up to 120,000 seeds, though only a tiny proportion are successful. Ragwort has been identified as home and food source to 77 UK insects, 30 of which use it exclusively as their food source. Ten of the latter are rare or threatened – it really is crucial to

As well as looking like a snuffed-out candle wick, this fungus can also resemble a deer’s antlers, hence its other name Stag’s Horn. First Nature describe it as a “ubiquitous little rotter”, and you should have no difficulty finding it at Gallows Hill or on the Chevin. It tends to attack wood after other types of fungi have already started breaking it down. It is bioluminescent – it literally glows in the dark – but not brightly. This phenomenon is easier to see if you cut in

It’s easier to hear the high-pitched, repetitive call of Europe’s smallest bird than it is to see it. However, a successful search is rewarded with a view of a cute little bird with a yellow stripe on the top of its head. The male has a further splash of orange in the middle of its crest, which it raises in courtship display. There are plenty of them on the Chevin, but I recently saw one next to Sainsbury’s, at Myers Croft Beck, so you might get one in your garden. Despite we

MELLOW FRUITFULNESS: Free food. Healthy food. It’s out there, all around Otley, and sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Just make sure your foraging is sustainable and safe, and as that is much easier in the case of fruit, that’s what I’m focusing on today. Correctly identifying stuff that isn’t going to make you ill is obviously crucial, but also only pick from plentiful sources, so that there is enough for the plant to reproduce and for wildlife to feed on. Most popul

The third most common tree in Britain is of course ubiquitous around Otley, but this may well change dramatically as Ash Dieback spreads and threatens to cost the UK economy £15 billion pounds (Current Biology vol 29). This is due not only to the cost of felling and replanting, but also the loss of “ecosystem services” such as timber, flood mitigation and shading. The wood is strong, resilient and flexible, and used to make furniture, staircases, tool and sports handles, and