Saturday 29 November 2014

Late November in the woods...

November 28th and 29th 2014 both turned out to be very nice weather days and ideal for me to get out and about in Comfort's Wood to see what, if anything, was happening. There's always something new to discover actually and even late November had plenty to hold my interest...



There are still plenty of fungi around in the woods. These little fruiting bodies were on one of the entrance gates.


Click any photo for a larger view on black


I'm sure local folk who walk these woods will know what I mean if I say that these ones were in 'the dip'. For everyone else, they were at the bottom of the big trees at the top of the little climb, after crossing the bridge over the stream.



There are still a few late bugs to be seen if you look hard enough and I came across this Green Shieldbug  on some bramble stalks...






Under some fallen wood I spotted a ground beetle that had been attacked by fungi...




A different type of fungi again now-this one seems to be attacking this dried rose hip...




Whilst I was looking at trees for signs of life, I discovered this strange looking insect...


This is a flightless, female moth. Possibly a winter moth? The females have no wings and their sole purpose in life seems to be the ability to climb somewhere high enough to spread their pheromones to attract a mate, then lay eggs that will emerge the following spring.




Back to fungi again; at least, I think this must be fungi? It was present in quite large amounts (this one is about golf-ball size) and had affected several plants...




Then under a fallen leaf I found this moth caterpillar. Not too sure on the identity of this one but it could be a Straw Dot moth larvae.




One more fungi to end this update then and I think this might be ear fungus of some kind, but I am no expert on these, so don't bet your house on it...


Friday 14 November 2014

Cellphone snaps...

Today following a brutal morning of heavy rain and gusty conditions, the weather relented and we had some welcome sunshine. I haven't been able to add anything much from the woods these past days and so this afternoon, armed only with my cellphone, I set about taking a few late autumn pictures. 
I set the white balance to cloudy just to warm the photos a little as the camera isn't great and the conditions were still a touch murky at times. Other than that, they are as I took them...



Edit: A discerning viewer to my blog pointed out to me that these were distracting to watch as they moved too fast and so I have slowed them and enlarged them also-I hope this helps. They were only phone grabs and not really good enough quality to add as stand-alone photos...

















Tuesday 28 October 2014

Autumn fungi in Comfort's Wood...

I recently spent a couple of days looking around the woods for fungi. Well, when I say a couple of days, I don't mean literally 2 days solid searching-but I did visit twice and spent maybe a couple of hours each time searching for them.

I will post the pictures with an identity for each that I know, but that probably won't be a high percentage as I am not too hot on pinning down exactly which species I am looking at...


Mycena rosea-The Rosy Bonnet (poisonous)



Mycena rosea-The Rosy Bonnet (poisonous)



Mycena rosea-The Rosy Bonnet (poisonous)







Possibly:Red Cracked Bolete- Boletus chrysenteron (edible)













Wood Ears-Auricularia auricula-judae (edible)



Mycena rosea-The Rosy Bonnet (poisonous)



Macrolepiota procera-the Parasol Mushroom (edible)




Macrolepiota procera-the Parasol Mushroom (edible)




Candle Snuff Fungus-Xylaria hypoxylon (inedible)











The Fly Agaric-Amanita muscaria (poisonous)



Macrolepiota procera-the Parasol Mushroom (edible)











Even though I have marked these as  edible or inedible species, I am NOT recommending you try any mushrooms. You need to be an expert to be certain that they are safe to eat-please don't try eating anything or you could end up with vision like this...or worse...




Sunday 12 October 2014

More clearing work in Comfort's Wood...

Monday 6th October 2014 and contractors are busy once again in the woods with cutting back the overgrown areas beside the woodland rides etc....





















This is similar to the 2010 work but with the emphasis more on the low growing vegetation than actually coppicing the trees as they did then.


I also noticed that the main entrance off Swattenden Lane the contractors used now seems to be in need of some work itself, as the gatepost appears to have been damaged, or maybe more likely, has rotted?



Back soon with another update...

Friday 3 October 2014

Autumn is on the way in Comfort's Wood...

Today, October 3rd 2014 I chose an early visit to the woods. In fact it was just prior to 7am and the light was still struggling to improve from dawn and the sun had yet to put in an appearance...

                      







By the time i returned at around 2pm things had improved a little and so I took some more pictures...

















And then I watched the clouds roll by for a while..




Back at ground level, I am starting to find some fungi now...
























These are some of the logs left over from the coppicing that have now started to be reclaimed by nature...











That's about all for this update but I have also updated the wildlife page with some more images...