Sunday 2 November 2008

Sunday 2nd.November 2008

Found another small flock of 8/10 Fieldfares and a couple of Redwings , in horse paddocks adjacent to Jubilee Country Park , on the outskirts of Petts Wood this afternoon . They certainly have come in this direction in good numbers this year . I was checking out a hedge that I am helping to lay late this or early next year . Whilst there , the sky opened out into sunshine , most welcome , so I decided to call in at Keston Ponds on the way home .
The sunshine had brought many other people out as well , which was just as well , as once again I forgot to take bread to attract the Mandarin ducks closer , but fortunately many of them did .
The waterfowl population has grown quite a bit since my last visit . The Mandarins are down to 2 males and 2 females , from their height of 9 and 6 . The Mallards and Mallard type ducks are up to 31 , including the five youngsters I have mentioned before . The 2 white Muscovy types are still around , as is the Aylesbury type white duck . The Canada geese have increased in number to 8 , and the Coots have matched that number . Moorhens are up to 6 , and also on the water were 8 Black Headed Gulls . I must state again , that it was only because of other people's bread , that I managed to get the following shots of a usually shy species .


Eventually , the bread ran out , and the Mandarins went back to the most inaccessible part of the lake , well out of camera distance . Whilst there , I had a look round for fungi , but it was in very short supply . A few False Chanterelles and a few Polypores were all that was found , until walking back through a grassy area , I spotted Clavulinopsis fusiformis-Golden Spindles ,growing amongst the blades of grass . I posted it's white relation C.vermicularis-White Spindles a little while ago . On the way home , I called in on the Common , to see how the Rhodotus palmatus which I posted a couple of weeks ago . The smaller specimen has been well chewed , but the larger one has turned from it's original pink colour , into it's Apricot/Peach mature colour . As I have said before , many fungi species only last a few days at best , but this one , if not damaged or chewed , seems to go one for quite some time .

1 comment:

John Young said...

Hi Fred,nice shots of the mandarins, a rare bird in its native China. I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the UK now holds internationally important numbers of the duck. Enjoying your fungus forays as well very informative for me as I know so little about them.