This
circular walk from Cadman’s Pool was rather dull and damp at the beginning but
improved through the morning. We went west as far as Holly Hatch Cottage before
returning roughly parallel to Dockens Water then up through Anses Wood. There
were numerous fungi species including bright orange/yellow chanterelles and the
Blusher Amanita rubescens; many examples were looking rather shrivelled
in spite of the plentiful rainfall but Sara pointed out that these specimens
were all exposed to the sun (when shining!) which at this time of year is hot
enough to dry out the caps quickly in spite of them growing from wet soils.
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| Silver-studded Blue |
Birds
seen included young Spotted Flycatchers, Song Thrush, Nuthatch and the
plentiful Mallard and Canada Geese with many ducklings and goslings at Cadman’s
Pool itself. There were House Martins gathering food at Holly Hatch Cottage and
we heard Stock Dove and lots of Chiffchaffs. On the heather were Stonechat and
Meadow Pipit and we were also delighted to see a couple of fresh Silver-studded
Blue (right) butterflies resting on the Ling.
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| Trailing St. John's-wort |
The
conditions favoured numerous flowering plants including Field Madder, a short
annual with tiny mauve-pink flowers; Trailing St John’s-wort (left);
Yellow Pimpernel, Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Bog Pimpernel (below) and
several clumps of Pignut, a small umbellifer with fine leaves which has a small
edible tuber just below the soil. Both Cross-leaved Heath and Bell Heather were
starting to bloom. We stopped to look at some interesting trees: an old Silver
Birch festooned like a Christmas tree with numerous so called ‘witches brooms’
which are actually masses of densely branched small twigs said to resemble a
witch's broom; they can be induced by various parasites including fungi and
mites but their origins are not yet fully understood. Also on our route and
identified by Angela were some specimen Wellingtonia trees (Sequoiadendron
giganteum), an evergreen with distinctive spongy red fire-resistant bark
which grows into the largest tree in the world by volume.
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| Bog Pimpernel |
Beside Holly Hatch Cottage a group of about half-a-dozen
healthy looking ponies were taking a great interest in a large builder’s bag in
the back of a pick-up truck which must have contained something edible or salty
and which was proving irresistible to them.
