November 1st. What a glorious day it has been. Sunny and warmish all day with only a light breeze. If only our summers were this good!
Out alone today, I took a trip to Craster and walked the heugh up to Dunstanburgh castle on the quest for fungi. Waxcaps to be precise. These lovely small mushrooms glow like jewels in short un treated grasslands, but are not something I am not too familiar with, only having found them rarely. I could have headed inland towards the Cheviots or Simonsides but thought I would stay local to see if I could find some near home.
As the weather was so good, I took a lot of pics, so I make no apologies for making this post very photo heavy. Craster is less than 2 miles from home, and on a day like this there cant be many better places to be in the UK.
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| Grasslands down to Dunstanburgh Castle |
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| Snowy Waxcap ( thanks to all who helped me with this one)... |
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| Candle snuff Fungus in the dew. |
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| Golden Waxcap |
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| Above - Scarlet Waxcap, I only found two, one freshly emerged and one well open. |
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| Golden leaves in Craster |
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| Feathered Thorn, a new moth for the year. |
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| Above - Red Admirals on Ivy in Howick Village |
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| Speckled Wood with the Red Admirals. |
In the warm sunshine the ivy along our lane in Howick was humming with insects including hoverflies, wasps, bees, 5 Red Admirals and a Speckled Wood.
3 comments:
Hi Stew...lovely shots, the white Waxcap looks like Snowy Waxcap (Hygrocybe virginea). I noticed a lot of them at Widdrington yesterday. I photographed some at Morpeth and are on my blog from Novemeber last year. Any Parrot's around? I would twitch them!
The speckled woods are going deep into the year! Red Admirals I would expect to see on a nice day in November, but the woods, golly
Hi Nige, I might twitch Parrot Waxcaps tomorrow! They can be found at Shepherds Law, near Titlington Mount / Beanley Wood along with Ballerina Waxcap. See Alnwick Wildlife Group blog....There were loads of Snowy Waxcaps, odd Meadow Waxcap, few Golden and 3 Scarlets at Craster today...
Hi Simon, I dont think Ive seen Speckled Wood this late before. I might try and see one tomorrow too....
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