Sunday 10 January 2016

Blooming early and fungi galore at Cranford Park

I had a lovely muddy walk around the park today......
 
 
At last the mild weather has given way to lower temperatures but nature is confused at Cranford Park.
The wild plum trees by the underpass are already in bloom....
 
 
There are Daisy's in flower....

 
In the church yard there were a few Crocuses starting to bloom....

 
and the Snowdrops are bursting though the ground in great swathes....

 
Bluebell leaves are already showing....
 
 
This patch are the invasive Bluebell species, not our native ones. The leaves are thick and strappy where as our native Bluebells have thinner more delicate looking leaves. There are patches of native Bluebell leaves coming up as well but they're not as advanced as the non native ones.
 
Just before the wood circle a huge tree has come down, blocking a wide stretch of access. I climbed over it but you can also walk around the haha wall path to gain access to the other side or walk by the side of the cellar fence towards the veteran tree. According to one of the regular dog walkers, it came down on the day we had strong winds late last week. I bet it made a huge noise when it crashed down....

 
 
The water levels are very high on the river so no sign at all of the Little Grebes. The Little Egret was also missing as was the Kingfisher. There were a few Mallards by the M4 viaduct and a couple of pairs of Moorhens by the iron bridge....

 
There was a Song Thrush at the back of the stable block....
 
 
and a Mistle Thrush in the Information Centre Oaks....

 
I saw and heard several Wrens today.....


 
and Goldcrests were abundant again, though still hard to photograph...

 
One of the woodpecker holes that I checked had a Marmite Parakeet in it. Two years ago a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers nested in this hole, and I'm hoping they'll nest there again this year (they don't nest in the same hole every year unlike the Green Woodpeckers). The hole is slightly smaller than the Green Woodpecker nest holes, and as you can see it was a tight squeeze for the Parakeet....
 
 
There were no Honey Bees in the wild hive in the woods, but I could still see the honey combs....

 
With all the leaves now off the trees you can see it's been a bumper year for the mistletoe....

 
I went on an hour long fungi finding mission, and was chuffed to bits to find my first Eyelash fungus ever in Cranford Woods. I've seen it elsewhere but never on my own patch. There wasn't very much of it, but it'll spread over the years. The location was an old fallen tree, exposed to the elements so it gets quite wet. Eyelash fungus is tiny, so I had to use my macro lens to get any decent shots. It really is a beautiful little fungi and you can see how it gets its name....
 


 
I also found a new site for Turkey Tails fungi, a pile of rotting logs on the edge of the woods. They were smothered in the wonderful architectural design of the fungi....




 
Along 'The Avenue' I found some large Oyster mushrooms...
 

 
I also found Jelly Ears...
 
 
The Dead Mans Fingers that I found weeks ago, are still getting bigger.....

 
The Velvet Shanks by the river are just starting to go over....

 
and my next pleasant surprise was finding more Candle Snuff fungi.
 The patch that I found a few weeks ago is still growing.....
 
 
and then I found two more sites.....




 
which I'll keep checking on every time I visit.
 
It's becoming a running joke now, that I'm good at taking photos of birds bums.
 So here's some more from today to add to the album 'Bum Shots'.....
 
Song Thrush bum...
 
 
Goldcrest bum....



Wren bum....
 

 
and a Jay's bum.....


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