Nature Notes | Roseland Online

Nature Notes – October 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

Sea shells: these abundant jewels of the sea lie scattered amongst the sand and rock of our secluded Roseland coves; they are fascinating, beautiful, endlessly collectable. They were once the exoskeletons of...

Nature Notes – September 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

Hoverflies: often brightly marked, sometimes almost waspish and therefore slightly scary, are everywhere, settling on pollen-rich flora among the bees and butterflies. Their role as pollinators is as vital as the bees...

Nature Notes – August 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

Emmets: there’s a lot of them about and they are often considered a nuisance. I’m referring of course to ants. The Cornish-English dialect word for ant – emmet – is often used...

Nature Notes – July 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

What’s in a nest? It’s astonishing just how much can be achieved with just a beak and a variety of building materials. The skill and ingenuity of birds in building new nests...

Nature Notes – June 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

The green umbellifers of Alexanders and the frothy white ones of Cow parsley have run to seed, replaced by others flowering this month. Many of the Apiaceae family are edible, but some...

Nature Notes – May 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

Walking is, apparently, the new fitness routine. It’s also the best way to get out and enjoy some fabulous nature sights at this time of year. With so many public access footpaths...

Nature Notes – April 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

Kaaarr! TchKaaarr! Who said that? Little sooty-black characters are making loud banter on the roof tops, sheltering on the lee side of the pitch, watching and waiting on what everybody else is...

Nature Notes – March 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

One of the many features that marks the Roseland as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is its Cornish hedges. They criss-cross the landscape, forming field borders, boundaries, and tunnels over our...

Nature Notes – February 2015 – Sarah E Vandome

It’s not unusual to see one or two species of flowering plant blooming throughout winter in the Roseland. But have you noticed just how many plants are doing so this season? Walking...

Nature Notes – December 2014 – Sarah E Vandome

Oak trees like extended seasons, it seems. Among the last of the deciduous species to drop their leaves this autumn, they have been more affected by late warm days than the decreasing...