Hello again, it's been a great day to be at Old Moor. Yes, it's been very windy but unexpectedly we had an afternoon with a lot of lovely sunshine. It was very warm and when I got back in my car, the temperature read a rather warm 23 Celsius! I had been expecting grey skies and rain...
The grey phalarope was still with us today, that's over three weeks now which is amazing! It seems content and is moving and feeding well.
Without any further waffle here is a summary of the sightings from Old Moor today. Thanks go to all of you who wrote in the book, and also volunteer Gerald Lax, who was kind enough to send me his sightings. If you click on the image itself, you will get a larger, sharper view.
The water was a bit choppy to say the least and this lovely wigeon was 'riding the waves' in front of the Reedbed Hide.
A mute swan with two cygnets spent a bit of time just in front of the hide too. Beautiful :)
My highlight today was going on a bit of a fungi search with Karen, our assistant warden. Our best find was a patch of 135 + (and I kid you not with that number) of fly agarics - Amanita muscaria. Fly agarics are poisonous and should not be eaten. If you'd like to know more about them then click here for the page about them from the Woodland Trust.
There were a range of sizes and ages in this patch which was maybe 10 metres square. Some of them were absolute whoppers! I've never seen so many together before or any quite so big. This patch is in an area that's not open to the public sadly but I took a few photos to show you.
One of the huge fly agarics with a £1 coin to give you some idea.
Karen took this photo on her phone to give you some idea of what the patch looks like.
We found a fair few in various places on the reserve and another of my favourites was this little puffball. We only found one of this species today. It is the season to see fungi but a reminder that you should always check with an expert as to whether or not they can be eaten. If in any doubt, then do not eat!
The reeds were amazing to watch today because of the high winds. Here's a little video...
The only satellite site news I have for you is from Edderthorpe via John Clarkson on Twitter. Thank you John.
He saw - 2 shelduck, 49 wigeon, 470 teal, 680 lapwing, 53 golden plover, a redshank,a greenshank, a dunlin, 2 snipe and 1000+ starling.
I'll leave you with a final photo. There are some stunning autumnal colours on Old Moor at the moment. These leaves being one of them.
Enjoy your evening.