{"id":4191,"date":"2018-12-18T11:32:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T11:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4191"},"modified":"2018-12-18T11:32:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T11:32:41","slug":"snelsmore-12-december-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdnhs.org.uk\/blog\/snelsmore-12-december-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Snelsmore – 12 December 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sue White led a walk at Snelsmore Common on the chilly but dry morning of Wednesday 12 December. On heathland north of the car park we saw two fungi on pony dung: the endangered Nail Fungus Poronia punctata<\/em> and the commoner but prettier Coprinus ephemeroides<\/em>. Carpets of mosses and lichens made an attractive setting for flowering gorse and Cross-leaved Heath. Turning down a wooded valley we looked at ferns, including Soft Shield-fern, and saw the stream bed disappear into a sinkhole in the underlying chalk. Fungi ranged from large brackets of Ganoderma and Birch Polypore to tiny Coral Spot, all turning dead wood into a feast for invertebrates and the birds that feed on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving the Common by a woodland path, Rob found a male Winter Moth resting between nights spent looking for the flightless females. The path followed a field headland where we found hedgerow plants and arable weeds in flower: Spurge Laurel, Ivy, Germander Speedwell, Red and White Dead-nettle, Yarrow, Groundsel, Field Madder and the orange berries of Stinking Iris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Returning to the Common we skirted a valley mire where colourful Sphagnum and other mosses were recovering from the summer drought. At the drier top of the slope we found Bell Heather with flowers, Cladonia floerkeana<\/em> lichen with bright red fruiting bodies, and a handsome little toadstool Lichenomphalia umbellata<\/em> which is the fruiting body of an unusual lichen. A flock of Siskins was feeding at the edge of a small pond where Water Crowfoot leaves invited a summer visit to see which species it is. Lunchtime moved the group on to the Fox & Hounds although there was still lots to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report by Sue White<\/em>
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