I took a brief walk on the heath this afternoon seeking out new fungi to label for our festival of fungi trail.
There's some fabulous green elf cup - both the stained wood and the tiny green cups, beautiful amethyst deceivers and lilac bonnets. There are also some less attractive specimens - the aptly named ugly milkcap and the brown rollrim.
Following a tip off from Jim I took a look around the timber stacking area on the eastern edge of the main section of the heath. Amongst the woodchip was lots of orange peel fungus - including this magnificent fungus.
Tiny and tricky to spot, but rather fascinating, were lots of Nidularia deformis - a type of bird's nest fungus. I've never spotted this before, it's not terribly common.
Thanks to Jim Langiewicz for the photos
I was then distracted by actual birds who decided to bombard me with bits of cone from the tops of the trees. I looked up into the western hemlock and there was a mixed flock of finches and tits - perhaps 35 in total. Laden down with fungi signs I had rather foolishly left my binoculars at the visitor centre but they looked to be a mixture of siskin and crossbill, including at least 3 nice bright red males. I returned for my binoculars to find they had moved a little further south into the Corsican pines - I could hear them - but as I got into a suitable spot to peer up into the trees they took off and a flock of about a dozen or more flew across towards the triangle. This group were the crossbills - chunky and calling noisily.
Still a good number of insects around in the sunshine - a sulphur-yellow brimstone, red admiral, migrant hawkers, common and ruddy darter.
If you are interested in the fungi then pop into the visitor centre and we'll be able to show you the best spots to go in search - I've found and labeled some but there are plenty of others out there if you would like an id challenge of your own.