Saturday 10 October 2009

Plucked untimely from the air

A lovely day, with early morning benefiting from a north-easterly breeze which produced an almost constant flight of small birds north along the cliff-top - see Bockhill's site for a list, in which goldfinches are prominent.
I sat on the cliff watching the goldfinches, wagtails, pipits and finches flying in from the sea, and hundreds of swallows and house martins feeding along the edge, twittering constantly.

A painted lady butterfly was nearby, rather worn, but gamely it took off and flew towards the cliff-edge on its vast journey back to Morocco - proof at last, I thought that they do indeed make the journey back to the breeding grounds - and as it fluttered over the edge, over the sea...... it was snapped up by a passing swallow.
A party of six stonechats was along the path beside the golf course, accompanied by pipits and a couple of song thrushes.

In the afternoon I went foraging (but taking only photos, leaving only footprints) in Malmains Wood, which has a good mixture of conifers and deciduous trees, and which I hoped would have a new crop of fungi after the rain.
And so it proved. As usual I shall not name names to avoid poisoning (and because I don't know them).

Except this one, which I know to be Chicken of the Woods (it tastes just like chicken, no doubt, but this was an old specimen, and did not look appetising).
There was a good crop of this fungus, so if a reader can identify it as being edible, I'd like to try it.

3 comments:

DOT said...

Damn! And I had £10 on the painted lady making it to Morocco in one piece.

DOT said...

Coincidentally my permaculture pal in Brittany has been blogging about fungi and the preparation thereof. http://bit.ly/a7NeO

Mary said...

An interesting variety of fungi. I guess with all of our rain, I should have gone looking. Poor Painted Lady....but it gave you a great title.