Waxcap Wonderland

Despite the overnight frost Thistle Hill was a paradise for lovers of waxcaps this morning. Odd that the only people I ever see looking at the ground here are those seeking the artificial stimulation of magic mushrooms. For me there is enough colourful, even psychedelic, experience in simply using one's unpolluted senses.

Which of these fungi is not a waxcap?

A Favourite Fungus

When this delightful waxcap first emerges it is an amber yellow colour.

After a while its colour changes

Finally it looks like this as far from the original colour as possible, but still well formed.

It's name.....................................................?

...............The Blackening Waxcap. Extra fun when you can see all the stages in a colony on the ground in front of you .

Here He Is Again

The fellow to the right of the tree is my old friend previously dubbed the Blacka unicorn. As I suspected his right side antler is absent. But there's more to see than that. He's actually got over his right eye something black looking initially like a piece of ribbon. I thought I had seen this more than a month ago and it's still there. Perhaps after all it is a broken antler or one grown at an odd angle. It will take a good view with the binoculars to sort out just what it is.

More close looking needed in the view below. Many people walk along Blacka's paths unaware of the presence of red deer although there are now far more sightings than previously. The stag in the picture below is so well camouflaged that it's understandable that they frequently go unseen.

Not Such A Villain

To hear some wildlife and conservation types talk you would think that it is our duty to expunge the silver birch tree from our countryside. The curl of the lip as they pronounce the word "scrub" is proof of a controlling attitude to the countryside and an inability to value the very absence of human decisions.

This tree near Lenny Hill becomes like spun gold in sunny early mornings in autumn.

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.