Sunday 7th.November 2010

Another busy week , with Down House on Monday , followed by two days hedgelaying up on the Greensand Ridge , Thursday working up on the Common and yesterday coppicing with the Surrey Group for the next hedgelaying next Saturday . The only chance to get out , Friday , the weather was miserable , so I spent most of it maintaining my tools . I grabbed the chance to get out this morning , but wondered if I had done the right thing , with the temperature gauge on the car showing a measly 6C . The Farm lake proved to be a waste of effort , with just Coots and Moorhens on the water , and noisy Parakeets and non stop Jays ferrying Acorns , the only interest in the air . Keston Ponds did little better , with just the single male Mandarin on the bottom pond . Without even taking my camera out , I headed for High Elms . Being unable to get a parking space in the Golf Course car park , I moved up to Cuckoo Wood car park , which was just half full . The most obvious difference since my last visit was the amount of leaves and debris on the ground . This is the wide ride between the Orchid Bank and the 5 bar gate at Burnt Gorse , the actual path lost under the deluge of Beech leaves . To the right is the small glade , where the Silver Washed Fritillary females like to lay their eggs . When there is little to see , I usually turn to fungi , but with all the laves and debris , even they were hard to come by , but I did find a few :The strangest specimen found , was this Laccaria laccata-Deceiver , looking almost mutant , with what looked like small , upturned , stemless specimens on it's cap .Not rare , but I don't find many of these Tricholoma portentosum .Caught in the middle of their growth , Hypoxylon fragiforme , which start salmon-pink , then brick red as shown , through brown and finishing black .The tiny saucer shaped Bisporella citrina .I had to clear away the leaves to get a shot of one of many Geastrum triplex-Earth Star . The hole in the top of the spore sack allows spores to be released into the air when moved or even with rain falling on the sack .A species that I have looked for for many years , after being told that they are to be found near one of the tees on the golf course , Amanita crocea , and today I found one .In the same area , another first for me , Cortinarius hemitrichus . The only other interest was when walking on Burnt Gorse , I put up two Roe Deer from the woodland just above . By the time I had the camera ready , they had made cover .