Wildlife Circus

  Squirrels foil  our best efforts to label trees - string, wire, cable ties - swopped in the blink of an eye. So it was with these 'heritage' apples that went to Pevensey Road orchard in the winter of 22,  now challenging us to identify.  The above displays none of the characteristics of the  two apples I  graft:- Kingston's own heritage variety Mitchelson's Seedling Kingston's apple story ; and the russety, Claygate Pearmain. The first port of call when attempting  apple ID is the New Book of Apples by Morgan and Richards. The second is  Fruit ID which contains a lot of  not - in - books info, accounting for information obtained from DNA. This includes synonymous varieties (sharing the genetic make - up) such as Chelmsford Wonder. Makes you wonder how an apple thrown into a hedge - classified as a seedling  - turned out to be the same as grafted stock.               ...

Eighty years ago - the birds  nesting within this tree and gathering food from its canopy - would have been quite different to those of today. These days, ring-necked parakeets seem to adorn every bough  and when C. L. Collenette wrote  'A History of Richmond Park' in 1937,  none had even been recorded. A very different bird community was recorded in the 1920's and 30's, with not only breeding records of tree sparrow, yellowhammer and grey partridge but  even red-backed shrike. Passage records exist for the latter in 2008 and 2010  (I only saw the more recent). Collenette writes that the tree pipit was a common summer resident, now described as an uncommon passage visitor. 'On a walk around the park 26th April, 1935, I noted some fifteen different males singing their territories. This bird after the hedge sparrow, is the most favoured host of the cuckoo in the park'. During today's visit to the park, I was disappointed not to see any swifts,...