turkey oak galls?

[the verminator]

are these galls? if so what sort?

 

also any ideas what has done this to this willow?

[David Humphries]

Think the galls are Gooseberry galls caused by Andricus grossulariae (gall wasp) normally associated with turkey oak.

 

Not really sure on the willow.

 

Possibly emergence holes of some bug or other.

 

 

 

.

[the verminator]

thanks, so will acorns still appear or will the galls stop these forming?

[Matthew Arnold]

Willow holes look like woodpeckers looking for grubs under the bark.

[David Humphries]

thanks, so will acorns still appear or will the galls stop these forming?

 

The galls are formed on the male flowers so I presume this will effect acorns developing.

 

 

 

.

[Fungus]

Willow holes look like woodpeckers looking for grubs under the bark.

 

After the escape of the flying generation of Cossus cossus from their "birth and feeding canals" ?

[the verminator]

Willow holes look like woodpeckers looking for grubs under the bark.

 

wouldn't think so, should have said that it is a side on shot and the moss is at the bottom of the tree so its only about a foot off the ground

[Fungus]

it is a side on shot and the moss is at the bottom of the tree so its only about a foot off the ground

 

Which is an indication for both Cossus cossus and a green or black woodpecker searching for grubs, which can after having been active, leave a pile of wood bits and fibers behind. The caterpillar secretes an acid to prepare the wood for consumption, which can still be smelled at the opening of the whole after it has left "the house".

---

[the verminator]

Which is an indication for both Cossus cossus and a green or black woodpecker searching for grubs, which can after having been active, leave a pile of wood bits and fibers behind. The caterpillar secretes an acid to prepare the wood for consumption, which can still be smelled at the opening of the whole after it has left "the house".

---

 

 

ah, thanks very much. it sounds like the cossus cossus then. i didnt know that the green wood peckers fed so low down. as for the balck woodpeckers i dont think we have them here? certainly have never seen any here

[Fungus]

i didnt know that the green wood peckers fed so low down ... black woodpeckers

 

I have watched them doing this a few times and also often witnessed them taking an "acid" bath in an ant's heap to get rid of bugs, and meanwhile having their portion of ants as a side dish, of which you later can find excrements rich of chitine looking a bit like slowly burned up cigarettes.