When we last visited this site, in June, our host Martyn Priestley suggested that we come again later in the year for the fungi. This seemed like a good idea & so we agreed a date. The weather that day had been awful & surely we could expect better conditions next time? A few days after Storm Babet had flooded parts of Yorkshire the forecast was for rain all day, some of it the heavy variety! Maybe that is why our numbers were down to just four plus Martyn & Sue.
Fortunately we only suffered the lighter stuff; however searching for fungi in the undergrowth, when it is raining even slightly, is awkward to say the least. This was an own transport event & Amanda & myself had arrived a few minutes after 10:30 due to the normally reliable 268 service running late.
The site is a mixture of grassland, deciduous woodland & patches of heathland. There are a few pine trees but mainly birch, willow & hazel & some oaks. Martyn led us around the best spots & informed us that over 100 species had been recorded. We were soon coming across them: Blushing Bracket, Hairy Curtain Crust, Candlesnuff, Bonnets, Oysterlings, Snowy Waxcaps lots of Sulphur Tuft, Brown Birch Bolete, an emerging Blusher, Deceivers, Fly Agarics (they like birch woodland), strange looking Pipe Clubs, Lilac Bonnet & quite a few hard to identify brown jobbies! Probably Cortinarius & Tubarius species (Webcaps & Twiglets).
Several milkcaps were found. The most splendid being the Saffron Milkcap. These are exclusive to pine & exude a bright orange milk. One I was uncertain of had a very hot taste that kicked in after about 30 seconds ! I later decided that the species was very likely to be Fiery Milkcap as that is associated with Hazel & there was plenty of that around. I made sure everyone had a taste of that one! Another one with a milder taste and an unpleasant smell was Oakbug Milkcap.
Martyn made the find of the day with a Scarlet Caterpillar Club. Sadly when I dug it up there was nothing attached to it. Maybe I didn't dig deep enough? He also knew where to find Ugly Milkcaps. Another good find was a Sulphur Knight. This had large yellow gills which is an uncommon colour for a toadstool. A group of splendid looking medium to large white fungi were spotted just off the path under dense vegetation. My thoughts were Millers as they had the right smell but the later spore prints were white rather than pale pink so I am now uncertain. Other species = Wrinkled Club,Twig Parachute & some past their best Brittlegills (maybe Ochre & Purple?). Although there isn't much fallen wood on site there was nevertherless a surprising amount of fungi around. Temperatures had been mild & rain aplenty so I imagine conditions had been perfect for them.
We reached the pond just before 13:00 after which we decided to call it a day. All of us were rather damp & eager for some lunch ! We never reached the heathland area but I expect we will be back again next year.
Many thanks to Martyn for his efforts, knowledge & expertise
John Gavaghan