Post 453 - Fabulous Frost

A crisp frosty walk in Silton forest

Hey everyone, today's Post 453 and I think it's the perfect time to do this post. As it's early in the New Year now and Winter is well underway it's definitely right to do my first ever post on frost. It's not been that wintery yet where we are but over the Christmas holidays there were a few days when we went for walks where there was quite a bit of frost. I've probably covered frost slightly in some of my Patterns in Nature posts, but I don't believe I've done one completely on frost, so in this post I'm going to say how frost is formed, and what it is.

So, what is frost?

Frost even brings out the patterns in a pile of leaves.

What most people know about frost is that it's ice crystals formed after a cold snap. Frost only forms if the temperature is below freezing, and there has to be moisture in the air. If it is dry you can get sub zero temperatures without frost. Frost forms when the moisture in the air changes directly from gas to solid.

Frost is renowned for being one of the most beautiful natural occurrences. The patterns it can make on leaves for example are beautiful. There are lots of different types of frost, which I have listed below with their definitions:

Advection Frost - is tiny ice spikes that are created when there is a very cold wind blowing over branches of trees, poles and other high up surfaces. Usually it forms against the direction of the wind. It can occur at any time, Day or Night.

Frost up close - here its formed icy tubes

Air Frost - when the air temperature is below freezing and there is water in the atmosphere ice crystals form. Generally an air frost forms on surfaces a metre above the ground.

Ground Frost - similar to an air frost but ice crystals form on the ground. Sometimes the ground can cool quicker than the air so you can get ground frosts without an air frost.

Some crystals were amazingly long!

Hoar Frost - This is where white ice crystals are deposited on the ground. They form on cold, clear nights when the conditions let heat radiate out to the open sky faster than other sources (such as wind or warm objects) can replace it. The name 'Hoar' comes from an Old English adjective that means something is showing signs of old age. In this context it means the frost makes trees and bushes look like white hair!

There are also several different sub-types of Hoar Frost:

• Air Hoar is a deposit of Hoar Frost on objects ABOVE the ground, such as tree branches, plant stems, and wires.

• Surface Hoar is fern-like ice crystals directly deposited on snow, ice or already frozen surfaces, usually ON the ground.

It made this plant look like a crystal chandelier

• Crevasse Hoar consists of crystals that form in crevasses where water vapour can accumulate in calm weather conditions. This is IN the ground.

• Depth Hoar refers to cut crystals that have slowly grown bigger within caves UNDER banks of dry snow. Depth Hoar crystals keep growing, seemingly consuming neighbouring smaller crystals.

White Frost - Is a rare type of frost that forms when the humidity is over 90% and the temperature is below -8*C and it grows against wind direction.

A bramble branch with new icy spikes!

Window Frost - This is a formation of amazing looking crystals that can be found on windows, such as car windscreens or house windows. Water vapour condenses on the glass forming frost patterns.

There are also phenomena called Glaze and Rime which are slightly different. They are formed when supercooled fog or drizzle come into contact with surfaces. Rime forms on vertical surfaces and glaze forms on the ground - sometimes known as Black Ice.

The best I could do to capture the frosty sparkle

One of the things I like about frost too is the folklore of Jack Frost - the mischievous character that paints the ice patterns on windows and nips the noses of people on cold days! Jack Frost seems to have been around in folklore since the 1700's but there are lots of other myths in other cultures associated with winter. In Norse mythology Ullr was the god of winter, son of a frost giant and ruler of Asgard in Odins absence in winter. In Russia there is a Father Frost. He's a bit different to Jack Frost as he is essentially their Santa and he delivers the presents helped by a Snow Maiden.

I didn't know nearly as much as I did about frost as I do now! I didn't know there are types of frost that could grow in the day, or that there was even more than one type of frost.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 452 - Petition update

Looking after the little things that rule the world!

Hey everyone, Post 452 and first things first Happy New Year! I hope you all have a wonderful, wildlife filled 2017.

Dad and I did a little film on post 450 that showed some of the things that I had been up to this year. One of the things I did was to start a petition. After reading and talking a lot about Brexit I began to understand that we would probably need a whole new set of laws when we leave the EU as a lot of our laws are made by Europe. Not everyone is happy about that, but some laws that we have from the EU are some good laws that protect nature. So I thought it would be good to try and help nature and try to get those laws saved.

The petition is linked here.

It's really interesting doing a petition and starting to watch it grow. You really don't know when you start off if any one will agree with you apart from the few people that have to sign to start you off. So with only a few days left on the petition, which closes on the 6th January, I am amazed that 7,157 people have signed. Thank you so much everyone who's signed and those who supported my Thunderclaps.

Let's see better wildlife protection to #defendnature when we leave the EU. Please sign to get strong UK laws.

https://t.co/QnCBBzlcLb

— Natalie Bennett (@natalieben) 17 September 2016

I had started to get a bit excited that I might get a response from government as the numbers started to grow but with only a few days left I know that probably won't happen. I'm not too disappointed though as a couple of things have happened which I think are positive for nature by the Government.

On my petition page the Government did sort of respond and put two links to some very long videos of sessions of the Environment Audit Committee. In one of them Andrea Leadsom, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is questioned. It all seems very complicated but I've talked about it with my family and I think it's going to be like this:

How will our environment be looked after?

• When we leave the EU there will be a bill - the Great Repeal Bill - which means that all EU laws will become UK laws.
• Some laws may need some technical legal changes to be brought into UK law.
• Then the Government will examine all the laws and see if we want to keep them, change them or scrap them.
• This might take quite a long time so some people are asking that laws that are not looked at in 5 years are scrapped.
• The department that looks after the environment DEFRA is producing a 25 year plan to look after the environment.
• All of the work done by the Environmental Audit Committee is being put into a report just before my petition closes

We publish our report on the Future of the Natural Environment after the EU Referendum this Wednesday. Follow us for updates on the day. pic.twitter.com/tFqoX72EVO

— Env Audit Committee (@CommonsEAC) 2 January 2017

So, the good news is that there are lots of people that are already looking at laws that will be needed to look after nature when we leave Europe. When we leave the EU all the laws will become UK laws, but Government will review them.  Perhaps the not so good news is that the person in charge has also said they want to have a vote to repeal the hunting ban!

We've asked Govt, academics & policy experts about the Natural Environment after the EU Ref. Read our report on Jan 4th. #PostEUEnvironment pic.twitter.com/BOjzF8hNB2

— Env Audit Committee (@CommonsEAC) 27 December 2016

A lot of changes are planned and I think we will all need to spend 2017 watching the changes closely!

Here's the petition link again :-)

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 451 - Dreary December? No! Brilliant Birding!

Fly on a dried out umbellifer on the 18th Dec

Hey everyone, just enough time to squeeze in a last post for 2016. I always wonder what I'll be able to find this time of year, in the dead of winter. Well it's been so mild that there has still been the odd insect to find and I have seen the odd fly around at places like Silton Forest.

Willow Tit at Sutton Bank

Of course something that you can see all the year round is birds. This December has been quite good for me in birding terms. I've had a few great walks over the Christmas holidays, staying quite close to home too. The first was a trip to Garbutt Woods, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve where Dad and I walked up the cliffs to Sutton Bank and had a well earned hot chocolate and a tea at the visitor centre. I love watching the feeders there, and we had a great view as we were sat outside as we had Esme with us. The feeders were alive with Chaffinches, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits but the reason I like them is that you can often see a Willow Tit or a Marsh Tit here and while we were having dinner sure enough a Willow Tit showed its face.

England's Finest View

A friendly Robin sat on the wall while we ate too, watching for crumbs I think. Looking up at the Robin we also noticed a Treecreeper looking through the moss on the wall. First time I've seen one that's not on a tree! Heading back down we stopped for a look at England's finest view which was grand even on quite a dull day!

Cracking view of a Buzzard

Now one of the things that I find quite frustrating about Kestrels and Buzzards is that they are always sat nicely on a fence post, on a tree or on a telephone wire when either I have forgotten my camera or as we zip along the roads at 50mph. I see loads of these birds but the chances to photograph them aren't very frequent. So it was a lovely surprise when we pulled up at a local pet store to see a buzzard sitting in a field just about 10 or 15 feet away from me. Well my camera was with me and I sat and snapped away while I had the chance, an awesome raptor encounter. It seemed happy just milling about this bit of field. At one point it flew up onto the roadside verge then made quite hard work of scrabbling back through a fence. I must have watched it for about 20 minutes, an awesome raptor encounter!

The Eastern Black Redstart at Skinningrove today

I had some time this morning and wondered if there was chance that I might manage to get another birding session in so Dad and I decided to look at what was around locally. Before Christmas I'd heard there was an Eastern Black Redstart around at Skinningrove so we checked if it was still about. It was! So Dad and I got into the car and had a trip that way, It's not so far from us, less than an hour away, but we've never been before. Following the directions we'd found about where to see it we peered over a jetty wall. Before the words 'I wonder where it is'  were out of my mouth it appeared on a rock just a few feet away from us. I hadn't even got the camera ready! I had to wait a while before I could get a decent photo but while we waited we had a look around and saw a few Fulmars a bird I've not seen before that I can think of. Also around were quite a few Turnstones, Herring Gulls, Rock Pippets, Black Headed Gulls, Oystercatcher, and a Great Black-Backed Gull. Sadly we didn't see the Glaucous Gull or Red Throated Diver that a birder on the beach told us were around. I might have seen the Diver but it was a long way off and I didn't have my scope so I'll be looking for that another day!

Well, not a bad December I think.

Hope you all have a very Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing what I can find in 2017!

Wishing you all a wildlife filled 2017 :-)

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 450 - Another Year of My Nature Hunting - an awesome 2016!

Hey everyone, Post 450 and first things first, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

I always like to mark significant numbers with an interesting post, so it's quite handy that this post 450 comes as it's nearly the end of 2016. One of the things I got for Christmas was a little film that Dad had put together, a sort of digital scrapbook of a lot of the things I'd got up to in 2016. It's a really nice little film and he left it without a soundtrack so that I could put another Christmas present to good use. I have a little digital music studio kit for the PC so I wrote and recorded the soundtrack! It's a simple one for now but as I get more used to the setup expect more of this :-)

Well it's such a nice little film and it shows lots of the nice things I got up to this year so I thought what better thing could I use for summing up my year. Here it is, hope you like it...

The film has also reminded me that a lot of people made it a great year so we added the thank you message at the end. Instead of making a big long list of credits on the film I thought I'd list the folks here that have helped to make my year awesome -

Georgey Spanswick, Jonathon Cowap & Joanita Musisi at Radio York 

for the interviews 

Jill & Simon Warwick and all at Nosterfield Nature Reserve

Thanks to Jill for all the help with Moth ID's, and Charles too... 

...and of course to Barry for the moth trap

Thanks to East Dales Ringing Group for the ringing sessions.

Thank you to the Springwatch team for  my Unsprung hero award 

and especially to Lindsey Chapman for the lovely interview

Lin at Haggewoods for a great day at a new ancient woodland

it was awesome watching the dragonflies emerge.

Lots of folks at the BTO like Ieuan, Viola, Andy & Paul 

and the Cameron Bespolka Trust for an incredible Birdcamp

All the young birders & naturalists I've met at Birdcamp, Birdfair and MigFest

Jess French for lots of RT's and encouragement

and a great mention of my blog at birdfair

People like Chris Packham, Anneka Svenska,  David Lindo, Alan Hinkes

and Mike Dilger for being so inspiring, friendly and encouraging

Roger & Rosy Key for some great bug hunts!

Luke Tilley & The Royal Entomological Society

I enjoyed being a part of National Insect Week

Nikki Bardsley & my teacher Mrs Anderson 

for helping me enter the Big Bang Fair

So many people on twitter! The list would be too long so sorry not to mention

all of the awesome supporters and friends - I'll do a bit of that on Twitter. 

and thank you to the 7141 people (so far) that have signed my petition 

- I'll do an update on that quite soon.

One of the main bits of the video is about my 2016 Yorkshire Reserves challenge. I learnt a lot from doing this, the main thing being just how big Yorkshire is! Mum and Dad spent a lot of time driving but we all had a great time and found lots of great new places for nature and walking. This year I think I have visited over 60 nature reserves at least 50 in Yorkshire. So I didn't manage to get to all the Yorkshire reserves yet but I will carry on. Another thing I learnt is not to rush this as you don't always get to see them at their best. There are lots of people to thank from the Wildlife Trusts who have also been awesome supporters this year.

Stephanie Hilbourne & Johnny Hughes for the RT's

Lucy McRobert & Leanne Manchester 

for lots of encouragement and opportunities

Jono Leadley at YWT  for lots of advice on Yorkshire reserves

and for letting me sell my calendar in your webshop

Richard Sykes for putting the calendar on the webshop

Lucy, Jennie, & Melissa  

for the chance to write a piece for Summer

Nature is awesome, and I've had a great time sharing my passion for it. I wouldn't have met many of these people if I hadn't started my blog. Thank you all so very much (and anyone I might have forgotten) for making 2016 such an awesome year.

I haven't decided if I'll start a new challenge yet but I'm thinking about it. If anyone has got any suggestions let me know. I'll certainly carry on with the Yorkshire reserves challenge as there's still some great places to visit yet.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 449 - My First Book Review - The Voyage of the Queen Bee

Hey everyone, today's post is Post 449 and two people that I've known for quite a long time are Carl Mynott and Tim Gardiner. I've known them pretty much since I started this blog two years ago now so they've been in touch with me for quite a long time. As you'll know from my blog I obviously love writing but also, something I've never expressed on my blog is my love of reading. So, obviously I LOVE reading about nature. So, guess what happened? Tim decided to write a book about bees, one of my favourite insects, and Carl has illustrated it. All the profits (I think) from their book go to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. This is a charity which I really love and support so I'm glad to see such a lovely fundraiser for them.

Tim very kindly asked me to review the book before it goes out. It's the first time I've been asked to review anything and it's quite an honour, but also quite fun! So if anyone else has a book they need reviewing then, I'm available ;)

It's an amazing book. It's aimed at 5-8 year olds but I still really enjoyed it and the story line of it is really good for the length of book it is. Anyway, let's get on with the review:

A Bumblebee feeding on a dandelion

The Voyage of the Queen Bee is a book aimed for 5-8 year olds. Several of the words in this book would be challenging for children of this age and would grow their vocabulary considerably. For example, there's words such as 'misleading' and 'bedraggled' (great word!). There was one word in the book that I didn't understand 'ramparts', the defensive wall of a castle. This is quite strange as I've spent a lot of time at castles! The main story of the book is about a Bumblebee called Blossom who's species feed primarily on Golden Hay Rattle plants. Blossom is heading over to the 'Secret Meadow' (where these plants grow) only to find that the plants had be mown down. She rushes back to the nest to tell the Queen, who tells Blossom to find some new Hay Rattle plants in the Golden Meadow on the other side of the Spartina Sea. The one problem is she has no way to get over there. She goes down to the shore to try and find a way over to find 'Captain Cricket', a pirate cricket who travels the seas with his Stick Insect 'Phas'. They make a deal and travel over to the other side of the sea on his newly christened boat, The 'Queen Bee'. From there they run into several different adventures trying to recover the Golden Hay Rattle seeds.

What I love about this book is how it uses some challenging words that would build anybody's vocabulary. The story is captivating (although aimed at younger ones) and I can't wait for the sequel. It really made me imagine the scenes, lovely summer meadows with bees buzzing around. If I had to change anything maybe it'd be at the start of the book, Blossom doesn't really get introduced as a bee, younger readers might not straight away realise that's what she is, so possibly there could be a bit of a pre-amble about her and then it continues with the rest of the book. But that's just my opinion!

The Golden Hay Rattle plant
(well Yellow Rattle from YWT Ripon Loop Reserve)

One of the best things about the book is that it is a very informative book. It teaches children some important things about nature and conservation, the whole quest is about restoring the bee's meadow habitat after it has been chopped down. It talks about lots of different insects and gives little bits of information about them woven into the story. At one point it says (when talking about ants) they were running as fast as their three pairs of legs could carry them which I really liked!

I have to mention the illustrations too, I love Carl's Curlews and the Crab, but they're all lovely pictures. I wish my art was as good, my teacher would be very pleased!

As well as it being a honour to review this book I've learned several things from it so I would love to have a look at the next one!

If you have young children and you want to introduce them to nature, I'd say you'd want to get this book! You can get copies from Tim's Insect Adventures Facebook page by clicking this link.

Well done Tim & Carl.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Post 448 - Many Marvellous Moths from my garden

Burnished Brass moth (Diachrysia chrysitis)

Hey everyone today's post 448 and you'll all know that I love all types of animal and plant in general, in fact all types of nature. So from that you'll know that I like moths. Well this year I was really lucky to get a moth trap (thanks again Barry) and it has been great fun to use. I love getting it all set up, placing all of the egg trays inside and then switching it on and wondering what I'll find in it in the morning.

It's not just moths I find! I caught lots of other insects
too including this Chafer Beetle.

I have caught so many things in it, just in my garden! Bearing in mind I don't yet have a mercury vapour light which apparently gives you twice the amount of moths. I think I've done quite well! In all I've recorded 95 different species of moth. I was lucky to get a lot of help confirming identifications from Jill Warwick so thanks very much for all the help Jill.

Thinking off the top of my head, I can remember I've caught a few Hawkmoths, Emerald Moths, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Snout, Shark, Blue Bordered Carpet and lots more. The full list is at the end of the blog for anyone wondering what else I've caught.

Poplar Hawk Moth (Laothoe populi) posing on Dad's finger

I thought I would also do some facts on one of my favourite Hawk Moths that I have ever seen, the Poplar Hawk Moth!

• The Poplar Hawk Moth is probably the most common of our Hawkmoths, which is why some people have nicknamed it the Popular Hawk Moth!

• You can find them across most of the UK - looking at the map of their distribution the most northerly one looks to be recorded in Fair Isle.

• They're found in a variety of habitats including gardens, woodlands, fens, moorland and heathland.

Another hawk moth from the garden
Elephant Hawk Moth (Deilephila elpenor)

• When at rest, it looks different to a lot of other moths, It rests with its wings out and its lower abdomen sticking up.

• They are one of the largest moths I've found in my garden, its wingspan is between 65-90mm.

• This moth is usually on the wing between May and July and is quite a common visitor to light and moth traps.

• It probably gets its name from the fact that larvae feed on Poplar, but they also feed on Aspen and Sallow.

The Miller (Acronicta leporina)

• If startled it can uncover and flash parts of the hindwing which are a reddy or rufous colour which can startle a predator.

• They eat very little if anything as adults, they are on a mission to find a mate and ensure they breed and lay eggs.

Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)

Recently I haven't been doing much moth trapping, but I'm going to see if it's worth doing one or two more sessions within the year to see what's usually about in Winter and see if I can get up to 100 species this year!

Blue Bordered Carpet (Plemyria rubiginata)

I also like photographing moths, but sometimes this proves to be a challenge. I have included some of my favourite pictures that I've managed to get of my garden moths here. I've seen moths in other places too whilst I've been doing my Yorkshire Reserves Challange this year and I've included photos of some of these in my calendar that I've put together and has been selling for a while. If you'd like one they're being sold through the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Shop. They're also selling at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve so if you're going on a day out there (which I highly recommend) then you can get one there. Any profits made from my calendars will be split equally with the Wildlife Trusts, with any money I get going towards my nature antics. I will probably be putting it towards a brand new lens for my camera, either macro or long distance so I can get better photos of everything.

Well, that's it for this post, I'll try and do another one in the week because I haven't posted as regularly as I'd like too.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Brimstone (Opisthograptis luteolata)

My 2016 Garden Moth List:

Latin Name (Taxon)	Common Name
Abraxas grossulariata	Magpie Moth
Abrostola tripartita	Spectacle
Acleris laterana/comariana
Acleris variegana	Garden Rose Tortrix
Acronicta leporina	Miller
Agapeta hamana
Agrochola litura	Brown-spot Pinion
Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut
Agrotis exclamationis	Heart and Dart
Alcis repandata	Mottled Beauty
Apamea monoglypha	Dark Arches
Aphomia sociella	Bee Moth
Autographa gamma	Silver Y
Axylia putris	Flame
Batia unitella
Blastobasis adustella
Cabera pusaria	Common White Wave
Catoptria falsella
Celypha lacunana
Celypha striana
Chloroclysta siterata	Red-green Carpet
Chloroclysta truncata	Common Marbled Carpet
Chrysoteuchia culmella	Garden Grass-veneer
Cidaria fulvata	Barred Yellow
Clepsis consimilana
Cosmia trapezina	Dun-bar
Crocallis elinguaria	Scalloped Oak
Cryphia domestica	Marbled Beauty
Cucullia umbratica	Shark
Cydia pomonella	Codling Moth
Deilephila elpenor	Elephant Hawk-moth
Diachrysia chrysitis	Burnished Brass
Dipleurina crataegella
Dipleurina lacustrata
Ditula angustiorana	Red-barred Tortrix
Eilema lurideola	Common Footman
Enarmonia formosana	Cherry Bark Moth
Epiphyas postvittana	Light Brown Apple Moth
Epirrhoe alternata	Common Carpet
Eudonia mercurella
Eulithis prunata	Phoenix
Eulithis pyraliata	Barred Straw
Eupithecia assimilata	Currant Pug
Eurrhypara hortulata	Small Magpie
Euzophera pinguis
Evergestis forficalis	Garden Pebble
Gymnoscelis rufifasciata	Double-striped Pug
Hedya nubiferana	Marbled Orchard Tortrix
Hepialus lupulinus	Common Swift
Hoplodrina alsines	Uncertain
Hydriomena furcata	July Highflyer
Hydriomena impluviata	May Highflyer
Hylaea fasciaria	Barred Red
Hypena proboscidalis	Snout
Idaea aversata	Riband Wave
Idaea aversata ab. remutata	Riband Wave [non-banded form]
Lycophotia porphyrea	True Lover's Knot
Melanchra persicariae	Dot Moth
Mesapamea secalis agg.	Common Rustic agg.
Mythimna ferrago	Clay
Mythimna impura	Smoky Wainscot
Mythimna pallens	Common Wainscot
Noctua janthe	Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing
Nola cucullatella	Short-cloaked Moth
Notodonta dromedarius	Iron Prominent
Oligia versicolor	Rufous Minor
Opisthograptis luteolata	Brimstone Moth
Orthosia cerasi	Common Quaker
Orthosia cruda	Small Quaker
Orthosia gothica	Hebrew Character
Orthosia incerta	Clouded Drab
Orthosia munda	Twin-spotted Quaker
Ourapteryx sambucaria	Swallow-tailed Moth
Pandemis heparana	Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix
Peribatodes rhomboidaria	Willow Beauty
Phalera bucephala	Buff-tip
Phalonidia gilvicomana
Pheosia tremula	Swallow Prominent
Phlogophora meticulosa	Angle Shades
Phragmatobia fuliginosa	Ruby Tiger
Plemyria rubiginata	Blue-bordered Carpet
Pleuroptya ruralis	Mother of Pearl
Plutella xylostella	Diamond-back Moth
Pterostoma palpina	Pale Prominent
Ptilodon capucina	Coxcomb Prominent
Rhopobota naevana	Holly Tortrix
Selenia dentaria	Early Thorn
Spilosoma luteum	Buff Ermine
Thera britannica	Spruce Carpet
Udea olivalis
Xanthorhoe montanata	Silver-ground Carpet
Xestia c-nigrum	Setaceous Hebrew Character
Xestia sexstrigata	Six-striped Rustic
Xylocampa areola	Early Grey

Post 447 - Terrific Transformations in Awesome Autumn Colour changes

Autumn colour along the River Swale

Hey everyone, well post 447 today and I thought that with all of the wonderful autumn colours that I've been seeing that I would look at why and how trees move from the big green leafy structures they are in summer to the bare brown skeletons of winter.

My bonsai is looking good too

I don't know about where you are but here in Yorkshire the changes have been going on for quite a while and have been really slow and gentle so that every day the autumn colours have been getting better and better. We had a bit of snow earlier in the week but it didn't last long enough for me to get any photographs, but the autumn colours against the snow were awesome. I think it's about at its best now though as lots of leaves are falling and some trees are starting to look a bit bare.

Well I knew a bit about why leaves change colours but I thought I'd look at this again to see what I could find out. Here's what I found out:

Breaking down the chlorophyll

• The first thing to say is that it is all to do with chlorophyll. This is the chemical in leaves which absorbs the energy from sunlight and uses it to make food, simple sugars or carbohydrates, from water and carbon dioxide.

• As the days start to get shorter and the temperatures start to cool off, deciduous trees and plants start to prepare for winter.

• Rather than just shutting down and dropping all their leaves they start to recover the chemicals and nutrients that are stored in the leaves.

Sunlight through autumn leaves

• They stop producing chlorophyll and break down the chlorophyll in their leaves into colourless compounds which they remove from the leaves and store in the branches and trunk.

• As this happens you start to see other pigments that are in the leaves all the time but they get masked by the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll uses red and green light but reflects green light so leaves look green.

• Weather can affect the colour changing process. Early frosts can disrupt the process that makes the red colour in some leaves like in maple. They make a chemical called anthocyanin which make them red. Some scientists think this acts as a sort of antifreeze to give the tree more time to remove valuable chemicals in the leaves.

A few Greylags enjoying the autumn colour
of Larches at Cod Beck

• It is only deciduous trees that do this as coniferous trees have needles which are thicker and waterproof, protected by waxy coatings and natural compounds that prevent freezing so they can survive frost and winter temperatures. Needles do get replaced gradually though. 

• Needles are less efficient at photosynthesis so the trees need them all year too to produce food. 

• There is an interesting tree though around a lake where I walk a lot at Cod Beck, the Larch. This is a coniferous tree that is deciduous.

Larch needles changing colour.

• It seems they do this as they tend to live in places where there is lots of snow in winter. By not having needles snow and ice doesn't build up on their branches so much so they don't break under the weight.

• As they can regrow their needles every season it also gives them the ability to survive forest fires.

Well that's more than I knew to start with and I always enjoy finding out what happens in all the processes that plants and animals go through.

Hope you enjoyed too.

Z.