Today I decided to meet up with Mark P on his local patch (well I think it is...the boundaries seem ever changing!). Anyway jesting aside, we had decided to meet up to undertake a fungi foray at Mount Segg. Mark had been there the previous day and seen some interesting species and knowing that I become a bit of amateur mycologist this time of year invited me over to do this walk.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, Mount Segg is located between Stone, Harvington and Blakedown. It is a sandstone hillock that is wooded on it's slopes with a small area of heathland on it's summit.
The lower slopes were fairly unproductive but as we were about a third of the way from the summit the leaf litter and path side grassy areas became much more productive. Here we noted Amethyst Deceiver, Common Puffball, The Deciever, Earth Ball, Lilac Bonnet, Ochre Brittlegill and Purple Brittlegill. The highlight in this area was a single Fly Agaric which was, as usual, in close proximity to some Silver Birch trees. This was a new species for Mark on his patch and a pleasant surprise for myself as I wasn't expecting any here.
At the summit area Mark pointed out a massive Penny Bun (Cep) that he had found the previous day and I discovered a small group of Brown Birch Bolettes.
Birdlife was thin on the ground and the only notables were a 'kronking' Raven and 2 Jays. A single Hornet was noted near Barnett Brook and 2 Shaggy Inkcap fungi were along the footpath near Deansford Lane.
It was interesting to catch with Mark and share some of his patch wildlife with him and we had a fine selection of fungi to boot. I wonder what I may have missed at Shenstone today? very little I should guess with how quite Worcestershire has been on the bird front this Autumn!
Amethyst Deciever (Laccaria amethystina)
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Brown Birch Bolette (Leccinum scabrum)
The Deciever (laccaria laccata)
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Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria)
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Lilac Bonnet (Mycena pura)
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Penny Bun / Cep (Boletus edulis)
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Purple Brittlegill (Russula atropurpurea)
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A positive fungi fest there Jason! A lovely selection. I saw Mycena Pura on another blog recently, it really is a beautiful, delicate colour.
ReplyDeleteI was interested to read somewhere that toadstool comes from the German, 'toad-stuhl' meaning seat of death!
Lovely photos and video of the Red Kites on the earlier post, sounds like you had a very pleasant time in Wales.
Thanks Jan. I never knew that about the word Toadstool, very interesting...thanks for enlightening me.
ReplyDeleteOur break away was good...although the weather wasn't the greatest it's not such an issue when mooching around bookshops!
An enjoyable fugi forray indeed ! It is nice to get something from that part of the patch, I've done a good few fruitless tours this year, but it does seems good on the mycology front
ReplyDeleteSeems alot of Bloggers are onto Fungi at the moment Jase, the birds must be scarce! :-)
ReplyDeleteMark - Agreed, it was a good couple of hours. your patch seems far mor varied on the fungi front than Shenstone mate
ReplyDeleteWarren - Desperate times and all that! ;-)