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| © Mary Mawdsley |
Our group set off on the cold morning, crossing Rhinefield
Road from Whitefield Moor. The ground was very wet, with
ice on the surface. Over most of the plain down to Crab Tree earth there was no
sighting of birds, and all was quiet. Silver Stream was also iced over, and in
the summer is a habitat for dragonflies and reptiles.
As we continued up the slope towards Ober Water,
some birds became more evident - seeing Coal Tit, Great Tit, Robin, a Raven
and Crow, near to a stand of Scots Pines. Also a Little Egret was spotted in
the distance. In a Gorse bush were some dense webs - however no eggs appeared
to be enclosed. Next to Ober Water Blackbirds were spotted and a flock of Long-tailed
Tits.
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| Spiders' webs on Gorse © Mary Mawdsley |
Just on the edge of Clumber enclosure there was more bird
activity, and Stonechat, Blackbirds, Robins were seen.
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| Birch Mazegill © Glynis Payne |
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Bitter Oysterling © Glynis Payne
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Following the path back to the car park we were lucky to see quite an active and sizeable group of birds feeding in the leaf litter amongst the beech trees in Aldrigehill Inclosure. Amongst them were certainly several Brambling as well as Redwing, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Tree Creeper and Nuthatch.
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| © Glynis Payne |
Following up on the recent interest in lichens Richard Smith was reasonable confident that according to the excellent FSC guide the lichen found on a stump was a species of Cladonia . Descriptions and images match Cladonia coniocraea, but we could be wrong as Claydonia is a complex genus. A number oof fungi sopecies were also noted during the morning including Beech Woodwart, Birch Mazegill, Bitter Oysterling and Jelly Rot.
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| Cladonia possibly coniocraea © Richard Smith |
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