Sunday, 4 January 2015

Foggy Brush Hill

It was cold, foggy and dripping up at Brush Hill this morning, but there was still plenty to see as we headed off down the hill through the spooky woods.

 


The first shoots were starting to appear through the leaves and the birds seemed 'busy'. A flock of chaffinches hopped about in the trees all around us and on the path in front of us and there were lots of blackbirds scurrying around in the woods. We were shouted at by a bird that was very cross we'd disturbed it (we didn't see what it was, but definitely heard it), a woodpecker tapped a tree trunk right above us and we caught sight of a tiny goldcrest.

Something's growing

A foggy chaffinch
We walked past one of my favourite trees - A massive old Beech tree that's beautiful, even with no leaves.

The damp air made all the spiders webs sparkle and they seemed to be hanging from every branch.
Lots of long single threads linked the trees and branches together

Spiral shaped orb web
We found some winter fungus, including lovely velvet shank that looked slimy in the dampness, yellow brain and jelly ear. You have to love the names of fungi!

Slimy velvet shank

Velvet shank growing up a tree trunk


It had grown inside the bark and
split it off the tree trunk

A type of jelly fungus called yellow brain
Frosty jelly ear
Then we huffed and puffed our way up the 155 steps to get back up to the top of the hill.  The fantastic view had disappeared into the murk though!
 

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