Author Archives: Amanda Tuke
6th September 2002 – How galling…
Each year it feels like the oaks are slow to get growing but then everything speeds up. Leaf growth, herbivores, predation all ramp up throughout the growing season until by the start of September the leaves are looking tired and in some cases well galled. These Cherry Galls, the work of a wasp Cynips quercusfolii, […]
28th August 2020 – a bitter bouquet
The scramble of Traveller’s Joy, Brambles and Hop plants is getting a bit out of hand. In the chill air after a downpour I stay a while to remember the things I’ve seen in this clearing this year so far in a wave of nostalgia. I’ve been keeping an eye out for some Hop flowers […]
23rd August 2020 – there’s a sprite in the garden…
I’m not sure what it is that makes me look up from the laptop and out the front window but when I do I see a blurry movement which immediately catches my attention. There’s something pinging around out there around the frothy Red Valerian flower spikes. A sprite like this one has visited us at […]
16th August 2020 – crimson tufts of lesser burdock
In the past I’ve come across the cabbage-sized leaves of Greater or Lesser Burdock each spring and had a complete blank about what they are. It hasn’t helped that this is a biennial plant which grows just a leaf rosette the first year and then flowers the second year. Next year is going to be […]
9th August 2020 – the Big Butterfly Count
It’s the final day of the Big Butterfly Count. I haven’t been involved with citizen science projects before as they always sounded like hard work but it’s quite extraordinary how relaxing it has been contributing to this one. The task is to simply notice and record butterflies and moths for 15 minutes, so much like […]
2nd August 2020 – a red umbellet on Saltbox Hill
Early morning and we eat breakfast part-hidden by Wild Carrot and Field Scabious on Saltbox Hill where Darwin reportedly walked and picnicked too. Like a number of other botanists I know of, I’m mesmerised by the beauty of the central red flower or umbellet on many Wild Carrot flowering heads, This year I’ve been photographing […]
Guest blog for Devon Wildlife Trust – Finding time to bird watch on a family holiday can be a challenge
I was delighted to have this guest blog accepted by Devon Wildlife Trust about a visit to a new nature reserve that I was lucky to visit in July, https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/blog/dr-amanda-tuke/finding-time-bird-watch-family-holiday-can-be-challenge
Guest blog for Mark Avery – Why councils should think about weeds in a different way…
Honoured to have this guest blog accepted by Mark Avery. Guest blog – Why councils should think about weeds in a different way by Amanda Tuke
26th July 2020 – Sage of the woods
Returning from a wonderful week of sand dunes and salt marshes, walking in the woods this morning is like putting back on an old pair of slippers. I make for an area near the footbridge which I haven’t visited for a while and find Wood Sage in flower. This plant isn’t really a Sage, the […]
19th July 2020 – with a hop and a skip
The wood is teeming with people again but the clearing is thankfully tranquil. I touch a Hops (or is it Hop?) leaf within a tangly clump of Brambles and Traveller’s Joy. The leaf is slightly tacky – is that how this plant fights its way through its competitors? A Large Skipper lands on a nearby […]
The Urban Naturalist 