Morning Browse

Cloudy mornings just before the clocks go back can be dreary at 7.30 am. So it's a welcome diversion to meet a deer family group. The heads of mother and young are just visible to the right of the stag.

He didn't seem too bothered by our presence.

Down Below and Up Above

Looking down from Thistle Hill tongues of mist spread over Dore and Whirlow.

Meanwhile up above on Blacka three stags enjoy an early morning browse on Blacka Hill.

Family Unit

On a glorious Sunday morning there were many people about even at 9 am. So it was a good idea to be on Blacka Moor by 7.15 and to see the sun rise in all its majesty.

I was rewarded with a sight rarely seen here or perhaps elsewhere. A red deer "family". A stag with a hind and also a youngster. The latter is not clear in the above picture, more easily in the second and better still in the third when they are moving off.

Best Avoided

There is a Grisette and a Tawny Grisette. Both are in the Amanita family. Despite this some claim they are edible. The Amanita family contains some members which are deadly poisonous so the usual advice is to avoid them for fear of making a mistake. This one is under a beech tree.

Fungi Selection

A small Fly Agaric

Unidentified wood rotting fungi on an alder stump.

Another wood-rotting fungus, the Candle Snuff Fungus (above and below)

A Bit of Wild

The top end of Meg and Jin Hollow, one of the wilder parts of Blacka Moor, fairly untouched by management schemes and left to go its own way. An item on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning was extolling the virtues of wildness; the message is slowly getting through.

Meg and Jin were local children back over a hundred years ago who got lost in a blizzard in this area.

Change of Colour

First frosts can bring a dramatic change to the appearance of a familiar area.

BB slipped over clumsily this morning and should be more careful. It comes of suddenly seeing an early morning stag on the hill just ahead and grasping for the camera while trying to hurry forward. Frost probably played little part in this, but it could be a factor in a future accident here (below) where SWT's eccentric bridge is surely a hazard.