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Nature Notes

Drog

Drog

Administrator
Staff member
Beware......... Mad woman.
 
S

Smells Like Kean Spirit

Senior Member
Anyone noticed a profusion of mushrooms and toadstools this autumn? It might be a combination of the dry summer and wet autumn, but I've never seen such a variety of them. And the sheer size of the buggers: red umbrella/faery toadstools - Fly Agaric; Chanterelles, Puffballs. Beautiful but I'm scared to touch them. Little wonder our ancestors regarded these spots as 'thin places', especially around this time of year, after Halloween and the onset of darkness. As we were observing a particularly colourful patch of fungi along a forest trail last weekend, a hare skipped passed us, disappearing into the shadows. A changeling perhaps?
 
Old Darwen Blue

Old Darwen Blue

Prediction Champion 2021, 2022 & 2023
Just to say, I do love reading the poetry in this thread. That’s it.
 
Barmitzvah Boy

Barmitzvah Boy

Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
rovers95 said:
With the missus and friends walking in Derbyshire couple of weeks ago.
Magic mushrooms plentiful. Spoke to a lad from Bakewell (picking them) who said best season for years!!
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Do you remember the coach trip from Chorley to Matlock in the FA Cup 🍻🍻🍻😂😂😂? I recall we won 4-1.
 
Drog

Drog

Administrator
Staff member
Nasty. If things are "all Gods creatures" why did he invent them?
 
S

Smells Like Kean Spirit

Senior Member
I walk the dog around 5.30 am every morning. A couple of times this week, birds have flown up from the fields, as we have passed by. Even though I've got a head torch, I haven't managed to get a good view of them. They seem to be about the size of pigeons, but I doubt they would be ground roosting. I thought they might be snipe or woodcock that have arrived with the recent late Autumn moon, but the fields we pass are for livestock grazing. Usually, I see snipe and woodcock in between the tussocks of boggier ground. Anyone got an idea what birds these might be?
 
Barmitzvah Boy

Barmitzvah Boy

Global winner of the 2021 Christmas Quiz 👊🤩🤩
Probably Snipe
Smells Like Kean Spirit said:
I walk the dog around 5.30 am every morning. A couple of times this week, birds have flown up from the fields, as we have passed by. Even though I've got a head torch, I haven't managed to get a good view of them. They seem to be about the size of pigeons, but I doubt they would be ground roosting. I thought they might be snipe or woodcock that have arrived with the recent late Autumn moon, but the fields we pass are for livestock grazing. Usually, I see snipe and woodcock in between the tussocks of boggier ground. Anyone got an idea what birds these might be?
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. We get both Common Snipe and Jack Snipe around us and they set off noisily at an angle. Both move off slightly differently which is how you identify the difference.
 
S

Smells Like Kean Spirit

Senior Member
Heading back to the turn off that leads down to the house, our neighbour was driving sheep along the lane to lower pastures. I decided to take the longer loop back to the house, to avoid the flock, and cutting through another forested area. As I was two thirds around the loop, and turning down the hill, a small figure darted from cultivated land in to the forest to my right. I stopped the car hypnotised by the figure spearing through a four bar gate and gliding along the manufactured glade between the row of regimented conifer trees. I felt compelled to follow, but my eyes could barely keep pace with it, and it was running faster than the season. It had been a while since I'd seen a hare so close to home. As the darkest day of the year approaches, and humans ineffectually shine light to combat the gloom, the hare was already bounding towards the Spring.
 
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