Five of us completed a circular walk through Heaton Woods, Cliffe Woods, Stoney Ridge and looping back through Northcliffe to our starting point. We had been labelled the Striders, but it turns out we are too well trained to always walk at an observing pace on a Tuesday, so our five or so miles took the best part of the day.
Our first stop in Heaton Woods was to look at the Butterbur leaves and note how they had been punctured by the hailstorm a couple of weeks ago. We then had a stop to look at some large old logs covered in Armillaria lutea, a type of honey fungus. The yellow stipe was notable and very attractive. On the whole we just enjoyed looking at the fungi, lacking confident id skills, but we were happy to name the Amethyst Deceivers and Dead Moll’s Fingers (checking in the book to learn the difference between these and Dead Man’s Finger; slimmer, with grey tips if I remember rightly!).