A mire on East Creech Heath complete with rafts of Sphagnum moss. Bog Beacon A saprotrophic, or recycler fungus growing on dead moss. Helps to fulfil a vital role in this area of nutrient deficient bog by breaking down the remains and releasing nutrients Read More …
Category: Fungi
Lords, Ladies and Leeks
Few Flowered Leek Despite looking like the picture of innocence this member of the onion family is the latest invasive species to arrive within the Stenner Wood site of biological interest. Further north its proved capable of spreading extremely quickly and outcompeting our Read More …
Elfcups and Flying Lollipops
A few highlights from the past week. Fortunately we missed the worst of the snow whilst Bolton and Wigan were hit by blizzards we received a couple of inches of slush. By mid-day on Saturday most of it was gone. There now appears to Read More …
Wagtails, Finches & Fungi
A few more birds and fungi from a couple of hours wandering around the banks of the River Mersey and the local woodland. Grey Wagtail. One of the more familiar birds of the Mersey as it meanders from Stockport through south Manchester. Surprisingly cautious and Read More …
A Wet & Muddy Christmas
Well I suppose at this time of year we ought to be grateful so thank God it’s not been cold because if it was we could be under 8ft of snow. It’s rained every day now for the past 3 weeks whilst the binoculars are Read More …
The Great Morel
Common Morel – South Manchester The bizarre honeycomb like cap makes this one of the easier mushrooms to identify. Quite a rare Mushroom the Morel prefers a sandy, lime rich soils complete with high humidity. After spending many years wandering around ancient woodlands, meadows, Read More …
Formby and Ainsdale
Red Squirrel – Formby Highlights from a trip to the seaside. It was actually our first visit to Formby since the devastating outbreak of Squirrelpox in 2008. Great to see the Red Squirrels are still around and have remained relatively easy to find. Since Read More …
Awakening
For once the sun came out and we were fortunate enough to be able to get out for a couple of hours on Sunday. After the long cold, dark days of winter the local wildlife is quickly responding to the arrival of Spring. First stop Read More …
1st day of Spring
Whilst officially Spring doesn’t begin until mid March over the past couple of weeks its finally started to slowly arrive. In fact after spending a day walking around in the sunshine close to Morecambe Bay we’ve decided that this year Spring arrived on the 19th Read More …