Views (Williams) Wood - Autumn Fungi

In my previous post about Views (Williams) wood, I talked about pulling up Balsam to make more room for native wild flowers.  Now we are at the end of October and the last of the flowers including some remnants of balsam are fading. The dense green canopy of summer leaves is gently turning amber and thinning out. As my eyes follow falling leaves to the woodland floor I see new colours and shapes in the rusty carpet.  After recent rain and warmth, large numbers of fungi are appearing. I'm not very sure about identifying fungi so all of the names in the following are my best shot.

The Woodland Trust have cleared some of the rides, to allow light to trigger wild flowers, and left some of the logs to provide natural habitats. Corel spot, a fungus I sometimes see in our garden, dots some of the rotting wood.


Corel spot on rotting logs.

Not far from where I was working in June, a huge mossy stump looks like a fairy's garden. It is smothered with feather moss and dotted tiny tree-like ferns. Glistening Incap fungi complete this magical picture. 

Glossy inkcap in feather moss

Crossing the river takes us into Buxted Park. Here we find a scattering of Chanterelles and a pretty pink-coloured Bonnet fungus.

Bonnet fungus

In the drier areas there are big parasol mushroons, 6 to 8 inches across. Making our way back between the lakes, we pass an ancient stump. It provides a home to brightly-coloured small staghorn fungi and turkey tail bracket fungi, which jut out from the old wood.

Small Staghorn

As we wind back through the woods, a sudden burst of sunshine turns brown leaves gold. As they fall, the leaves drift around clumps of moss almost smothered by sulphur tufts.

Sulphur Tuft

The wood saved the best until last. Hidden just a few yards from the gate, an old stump is an open jewel box lit up by sparkly fairy inkcaps and clumps of golden fungi.

An unknown yellow fungus and fairy bonnets.

Then home with a cup of tea, a pile of books and the First Nature web site to identify our woodland treasures.

Views (Williams) Wood - Repelling the invasion

A little while ago the Woodland Trust asked for some volunteers to help Sandra, of the TrUck project, to remove some of the Himalayan balsam which, in their words, "is getting a foothold in a couple of places within the wood". A couple of months ago I had noticed small seedlings beginning to grow amongst the bluebells and other wild flowers. Now those 'seedlings' are taller than I am. If left to grow and spread, they would soon overwhelm the other wild flowers and cause other problems as explained in The River Uck - not so pretty in pink.
 

Himalayan Balsam in Views (Williams) Wood.

Unfortunately, I couldn't join the rest of the party so I went and did some by myself. As described in an earlier post, I have done this before and am happy that I can identify the plants properly.  The work itself is reasonably easy, it is just a matter of pulling up these shallow rooted plants and stacking them by the path.  I was there from about quarter past nine and had the wood more-or-less to myself. The only noise was birdsong and church bells, which was lovely.  While I worked in the shade of the trees, I saw many different types of wild flowers including dainty enchanter's nightshade, speedwell and red campion.
 

Red campion.

As I progressed and the heap of discarded Himalayan balsam got higher inquisitive dogs nosed around my work and their owners stopped for a chat. Later joggers and family groups passed by.
 

Heap of Himalayan balsam.

After about two and a half hours I went home, having spent an enjoyable morning getting rid of an alien invader - and don't worry - I'm not greedy, there is more balsam for other people to pull up.
 
 

Himalayan Balsam and honeysuckle.

How Doctor Who helped me spot a lizard

Yesterday we took a walk through The Woodland Trust's Views (Williams) Wood to Buxted Park and back. We visited earlier in the spring when the spring flowers seemed to be in a frantic race to bloom before the tree canopy closed over them. Now serene greens of fresh leaves are taking over from the fading flowers.

Serene greens and fading blues in Views (Williams) Wood.

The wood is quieter too as the birds that, earlier, were singing to attract mates and protect territories silently hunt food for their young. Fortunately for them the wood is humming with insect life.

Black headed cardinal beetle.

The most colourful insect we saw was a black headed cardinal beetle. It was eye-catching enough when I first saw it resting on an old stump. Long scarlet wing cases contrast with black head, body and legs. When its comb-like antenna detected me creeping up with my camera, out flashed black wings and it flew away in a swirl of red and black. The larvae of this insect live under the bark of freshly dead broad leaved trees. Maybe they benefitted from last year's coppicing.

The woodland rides are still lined with greater stitchwort, which has now been joined by delicate white caraway (I think) flowers. These still appeared here and there as we crossed the river to Buxted Park.  In the more open parkland, hawthorn are blossoming and rabbits lolloping around in the sun.

Bluebells and hawthorn blossom - Buxted Park

Most of the daffodils in the graveyard of St Margaret's Church have faded but a few of the late, pheasant eye, variety are hanging on. The shaggy grass is full of pea-family flowers: red clover, black medic (which is actually yellow), vivid magenta common vetch and the tiny blooms of hairy tare. As bees work systematically through the flowers, a cloud of shiny micro moths dances above.

Lizard draped round the neck of an angel.

As we walked to the gate I spotted an angel headstone, I gestured towards it and was about to make the usual joke about not blinking (this is from an episode of Doctor Who called Blink) when I spotted a lizard draped round the back of the neck of the angel. In a blink it was gone. I hope it had scurried away from the looming human rather than being zapped back into the past. If it hadn't been for me wanting to make a daft joke about a TV show, I never would have seen the lizard.

Buxted Park Hotel

It looks like some trees have been lost in recent storms and, maybe, some of the Limes that fell in the great storm of 1987 have been cleared away. Parts of the park feel a little more open now and there are some fine views of the Buxted Park Hotel.

Geese and goslings.

Passing between the lakes there are a variety of geese with fluffy goslings. Like us, they fled to the shelter of the trees when a hail storm interrupted the sunshine. We went home to our warm, dry house, leaving the creatures of the park and the wood to fend for themselves.

Views Wood - spring on fast forward

We took advantage of the lovely spring weather and the May Day bank holiday to walk though the Woodland Trust's Views (Williams) Wood today. The much delayed spring is now on fast forward. 

Wood anemones and bluebells in Views Wood

Because of the cool spring, the last of the wood anemones have hung and are now combining beautifully with the first of the bluebells.  Other flowers such as yellow archangel and cuckoo flower are appearing too.

The lovely carpet of wild flowers was animated by little birds - wrens, robins and blue tits - flitting around as they collect food for hungry nestlings.  Amongst the gentle spring colours, there's the dazzling flash of an orange tip butterfly's wings.

King cups in a soggy dip

One of the hidden treasures of the wood is the gold of king cups that gleams from the bottom of a soggy dip. They are surrounded by banks of bluebells.  

When we reached Buxted Park, this sunny bank holiday had one more treat for us. The sound of cuckoos, who must have recently arrived from Africa.

Stealing ideas from nature

It's true confession time. When gardening, I steal most of my best ideas from nature. When walking through Views (William) Wood near my Manor Park home I see many pretty sights.  One of my favourites is the mossy old stumps and coppice stools surrounded by dainty wild flowers and ferns.

Wood anemones around the foot of a coppice stool, photographed 14 April 2013

I wanted to make something similar in my garden. Wood anemones, bluebells and wild arum grow naturally there. Maybe the woodland once extended as far as the location of our 1960s home.  

Here's one I made earlier, photographed 14 April 2013

We asked a professional gardener to remove some laurels, giving us a clear space in the shade of our tall birches.  Next, I bought a couple of old coppice stools from Wilderness Wood. My family are always amused by my habit of buying manky old bits of wood but I find they make good garden ornaments without the worry that some light-fingered so-and-so will take a fancy to them.  I got most of the plants by taking pieces of what we already had in the garden. I transplanted seedling wild arums and sprinkled seed from bluebells, cuckoo flower and foxgloves. I supplemented these with ferns, hardy geraniums and a red campion-like plant that I bought from local nurseries and open gardens. I don't stick rigidly to native plants. Sometimes I choose garden species that are similar to local wild flowers. I find that these cope just as well with local conditions, including greedy deer, and extend the options available to me.

The final step was to wait. It will be a year or two before the bluebells are flowering properly but the other flowers and leaves are giving plenty of interest. So that is how I designed my little woodland garden.