Rosedale Community News

The old oak tree is bare! It’s this time of year when trees show all they have got.  The split in the trunk and subsequent hollowing is very visible  Updale Natural History Recorder

Oak tree

The trunk showing its age

We have dippers here on the River Seven in Rosedale.  They are early breeders and pair bonding is already underway at their nest sites.  Plenty of singing between them – females sing as well as males.  Plenty of picking up and dropping leaves, bowing with wings quivering and tail cocked.  Next month they will be well on with refurbishing their nests.  Updale Natural History Recorder

Pair of dippers

A couple of roe deer does showing themselves well in Hartoft during our wintery weather.  Roe deer are reddish brown in summer but adopt this dull brown coat in winter.  There appears to be an obvious light patch on the necks.  Updale Natural History Recorder

Lovely to see a grey partridge in one of gills on edge of moor at Rosedale East.  The grey partridge, also known as the English partridge is our native partridge but by no means common these days.  Updale Natural History Recorder

Grey partridge

These beautiful wheatears are back in their numbers up on the edge of the moor. The male has a grey back and crown and a striking black eye-stripe with a white stripe above called a supercilium. The female has altogether browner colouring with a cream supercilium. Both have buff underparts and a white rump and both have a characteristic bob and flick action. You should see them from the old railway line on the east side of Rosedale and at the top of Chimney Bank. Worth getting your walking boots on. Updale Natural History Recorder

Male wheatear

Female wheatear

Comma butterfly is now on the wing here in Rosedale.  A favoured place for them is a sheltered sunny position on the edge of a wood where they will bask in the sun.  Delightful white comma on the underwing if you are lucky enough to see it.  Updale Natural History Recorder

Comma butterfly

Underwing showing comma

Some spectacular fungus out there just now. Yellow Brain fungus Tremella mesenterica, is hard to miss, its golden yellow looking so unnatural. Jelly Ear fungus Auricularia auricula-judae is perhaps less obvious but is just beautifully formed in a rich brown. Both are jelly-like and found on dead or decaying trees. Updale Natural History Recorder

Yellow Brain fungus on decaying Ash tree

Jelly Ear fungus on decaying Elder tree

Found this beautiful Jelly ear fungus here in the dale this week. Also known as Judas’s ear fungus, Auricularia auricula-judae and commonly found on the elder tree. The story goes that Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus hanged himself on an elder tree. It resembles the human ear and is rubbery in texture. It ranges from purple to brown through to almost black as it ages.  Updale Natural History Recorder

Jelly ear fungus, Auricularia auricula-judae

This adder was basking in the welcome sunshine on Sunday up on the moor here in Rosedale.  Can’t have been long out of hibernation.  Beautifully marked reptiles to be admired from a safe distance as their venom is poisonous.  Updale Natural History Recorder