Sunday 7 November 2010

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 .

6 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Glad you found time to get out Greenie. Its all a bit quiet everywhere this time of year. Doubt if you'll be out tomorrow, looking at the weather !

Phil said...

Well done for getting out Greenie, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find much at the moment. Nice shots of the various fungi even though I haven't a clue about them i'm sorry to say!

ShySongbird said...

It sounded like a well deserved outing after your busy week Greenie.

You hunted out a very good selection of fungi and well done on finding the two you hadn't seen before. I do always look at any fungi I pass but I can see it could be quite a hookable subject.

As for the 'non stop' Jays, I haven't seen even one for some time!

Wilma said...

The Amanita and Cortinarius are both lovely mushrooms. The pleasant days are winding down now. Today was one of our last I'm afraid. :-(

John Young said...

Finding your fungi posts excellent Greenie.

Ken. said...

Hi Greenie.
Nice variety of Fungi photo's.