A Sycamore Tree growing on the Erith Southern Marsh

We have never really paid much attention to trees: perhaps it's time we started? We read that Sycamore flowers are good for Bees and we assume other little Critters. So we will keep an eye on this one which should be flowering soon:

Female Ladybirds are bigger than male Ladybirds

We hadn't really given it much, if any, thought, but it would certainly seem to be the case:

And we have recently read that female Nursery Web Spiders are larger than the males. We have seen some super-chunky individuals which we have assumed to be female and some much smaller ones which we have assumed to be male. 

A weight off the mind

We no longer attend the British Lichen Society, Chat & Improvement Meetings; we did so for a couple of years if not more but were never going to become expert. Time had run its course and we had arguably outstayed our welcome, so we have left: and if truth be told, it lifted a weight from our minds. 

And with it being Spring (of sorts) our attention is now turned to Bees, Bee-Flies, Butterflies, Crane Flies, Hoverflies, Ladybirds, Shieldbugs, Wild Flowers &c. &c.

But we will still be looking for Lichens, such as this Flavoparmelia caperata (lots of it present), seen recently on a tree on Bostall Heath (the Royal Borough of Greenwich) viz. green-coloured lobes, some wrinkled, soredia on lobes, the under-lobes black although light coloured at margins with white rhizines which apparently turn black with age: