New Species - Ivory Spindle

I saw lots of what I assumed was Crested Coral (Clavulina coralloides) in the East Field. It turned out to be the much less common Ivory Coral (Ramariopsis kunzei). Another species for the Beech's list.

Waxcap #22 - New Species

It's always a red-letter day when I find a new waxcap here and #22 is the Crimson Waxcap (Hygrocybe punicea) one of the most handsome waxcaps. Unfortunately they were in the field with the sheep and had been well trampled but identifiable nonetheless. It could be 23 species if the previously recorded Orange Waxcap stands as a valid ID but I am having doubts so I need to review the survey info and photos before claiming 23 species. Even at 22 species this makes The Beeches a site of international importance according to criteria set up in the 1980s and 1990s. However it is worth adding that I know of sites with similar numbers of species around here. It is partly that we are blessed for old meadows around here and partly that waxcaps have been underrecorded.

November Fungi - Trooping Funnel

A big show of trouping funnels (Clitocybe geotropa) in the West Field - actually conforming to stereotype and trooping and not far from a beech tree. It's common enough so surprising I haven't identified it before.

November Fungi - Devil's Fingers (Clathrus archeri)

I saw this extraordinary fungi for the first time yesterday on a hill pasture on the other side of the Wye when I didn't have my camera with me. Strangely enough I found it today in my own fields. For an Australian native that was introduced accidentally last century and which my book says is confined to the southern England and rarely recorded, it is spreading fast! It is clearly past its best so I will keep a look out for any more that might fruit.

November fungi - Pearly Powdercap

I see the Earthy Powdercap (Cystoderma amianthinum) often - it is one of the commoner grassland fungi. The closely related Pearly Powdercap (Cystoderma carcharias) pictured above seems much less common. I saw it for the first time in an orchard in Penallt. It has somewhat different colouration and a more persistent ring but the clincher is that it smells mealy whereas the Earthy Powdercap does not have a distinct smell.

November fungi - Scarlet Caterpillar Club

Found by a neighbour in their lawn this fungi has a particular niche which is parisitising the buried larvae of insects. The Scarlet Caterpillar Club (Cordyceps militaris) is a grassland fungi with a difference.

October fungi - Honey Waxcap

The Honey Waxcap (Hygrocybe reidii) has started appearing in the last week both here and on other sites. This photo is of a fairly contorted fruitbody but shows off the distinctive gills nicely.

October Fungi - Crimson Waxcap

Last year one field in New Grove Meadows was covered in a carpet of Crimson Waxcaps - hundreds of them. This year I saw one a couple of days ago and one today. It was a rather beautiful example of this striking waxcap so I took a photo.

October fungi - Blue Roundhead

This was found by a neighbour in his garden. I am confident it is either the Blue Roundhead or the Verdigris Roundhead and probably the former. A spore print is being taken and that may help decide for certain. Edit: It does - it's a Blue Roundhead

October fungi - Dewdrop Mottlegill

There is a group of attractive Dewdrop Mottlegills (Panaeolus acuminatus) in the East Field at the moment. The Mottlegills are essentially dung fungi so presumably these are growing on some wild animal dung as the sheep have not been in that field since February.

New Species - Dark Crazed Cap

This was found after the foray so I think we missed it at the time. I come across the Crazed Cap (Dermoloma cuneifolium) reasonably often on unimproved fungi-rich grassland but this is the first time I have seen this much less common fungi, the Dark Crazed Cap (Dermoloma pseudocuneifolium).

New Species - Ivory Bonnet (Mycena flavoalba)

Also found at the foray here was the Ivory Bonnet (Mycena flavoalba). This is a beautiful delicate little fungi to which my photo does not do justice.

New Species - Yellow Foot Waxcap

The fungi foray here at The Beeches on Saturday turned up a new waxcap for the list here - the Yellow Foot Waxcap (Hygrocybe flavipes). It has the dual attractions of being easy to identify (due to its yellow base of the stem when plucked) and having beautiful grey gills with lots of interconnecting veins. I note that my photo shows neither of these features!

October Fungi - Waxcaps from a lawn

This is not from The Beeches or even very close but it makes a change from my usual fungi pictures. This was almost all of the waxcaps found yesterday on a survey of the lawns in front of Kentchurch Court, a stately home just up the Monnow Valley. For the record the 13 species shown are flavipes, citrinovirens, quieta, ovina, ceracea, chlorophana, irrigata, psittacina, intermedia, insipida, calyptriformis, conica and virginia. Pratensis was also found.

October fungi - Plums and Custard

This is a new species for me here at The Beeches. It is a common enough fungi but comes in delightful colours - hence the name. Unfortunately this example suffered some damage from my mower before I spotted it growing on an old conifer stump. It's latin name is Tricholomopsis rutilans.

Great year for Red Admirals

A poor summer for butterflies in general - both in terms of species and numbers. There were lots of Meadow Browns which is the commonest butterfly here but even their numbers were probably down and there were less of all other species as well as a number of non-appearances. The one I was most disappointed about was the iconic meadow butterfly here - the Marbled White. However the one species that has had an outstanding year is the Red Admiral. I don't know whether it is because of Climate Change or just the particular weather we have had this year but they have been plentiful. Here we are in mid-October and they are still flying. I took this photo yesterday.

September fungi - Slimy Waxcap

This waxcap (Hygrocybe irrigata) is indeed slimy but one of the most distinctive features for me are the hoops or bands on the stipe. Sometimes you need full sun to see them clearly but no other waxcap I have seen has the same feature.

September fungi - Glutinous Waxcap

This is a waxcap (Hygrocybe glutinipes)that I have been trying to get a good photo of that shows its gloop. I think I finally managed it. This was here at The Beeches.

September fungi - Spangle Waxcap

I have a little group of the Spangle Waxcap (Hygrocybe insipida) with its dark orange striae. This was one that puzzled me for a while but I am confident now of the ID. Part of the problem is that other people also get confused and post the wrong pictures on the internet and even in books!

September fungi - Lilac Pinkgill

Yesterday I found some classic looking Lilac Pinkgills (Entoloma porphyropheum) a.ll lilacy and pinkgilly. These were in The Hudnalls

September fungi - Pale Waxcap

I wasn't 100% sure about the ID of the Pale Waxcap that I find here every year but it has been confirmed. In fact it looked a bit different this year in terms of the cap shape but then the cap shape is always somewhat distorted. I follow Boertmann on nomenclature and he says this is a variety of Meadow Waxcap hence Hygrocybe pratensis var pallida. Others say that it is a separate species Hygrocybe berkeleyi and as a layman it certainly seems separate from the hundreds of Meadow Waxcaps I get here.

September fungi - Agaricus urinascens

This looked like a particularly fine Agaricus urinascens (used to be A. macrosporus) - I have only ever seen a half eaten one before. I found it on the other side of the Wye on the Hudnalls.

September fungi - Big Blue Pinkgill

This is a only Pinkgill (Entoloma sp) on the UK BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) as far as I know. I hadn't found it before but it turned up as the only fungi fruiting at New Grove Meadows recently. It's a little slug eaten but still looks impressive.

September fungi - Fibrous Waxcap

The Fibrous Waxcap (Hygrocybe intermedia) fruiting here in far greater numbers than I have seen before. I have around 15 areas of fruiting in my largest field comprising about 50 or more specimens. Yesterday over on the other side of the Wye I saw even greater numbers of this waxcap with one clump of 50 or so examples. It must be the particular weather that suits it.

September fungi - Hygrocybe ingrata

Absolutely drowning in waxcaps here since we got back from holiday mid-month but until yesterday I hadn't seen many elsewhere. I am particularly pleased to see a large fruiting of this little known waxcap (it doesn't have an English name). I had some fruiting at the end of June strangely but now there is a troupe of around 30 in the large field. This phot is of a grizzled old slug eaten example which shows the cap nicely. Thee books say they get up to 50 or 60mm across but this is bigger.

Start of the fungi season?

It's been eerily quiet on the fungi front since the unseasonal appearance of three waxcaps at the end of June but yesterday I found a grassland stalwart, the Yellow Fieldcap (Bolbitius titubans). I am expecting lots more fungi in the next few weeks.

Painted Lady

It's not been a great year for butterflies (except for Red Admirals surprisingly), but at least one species was added to this year's list yesterday with this Painted Lady seen on the Buddleia.

Dragonflies

There is still plenty of dragonfly action around the pond - in residence currently are Common Darters. At first I thought it was a different darter as the males weren't the usual brick-red colour that I associate with this dragonfly. However after lots of checking involving binos and scope I think it must be the Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). There was also a Southern Hawker in the house this afternoon.

Butterflies in 2016

Have been a bit scarce. I was particularly disappointed to see no Marbled Whites at all this year and there were few Common Blues earlier on. However the recent warm weather has brought out a good number of Common Blues and some Small Skippers as well. I managed to get both in one picture as they rested on some grass in the garden outside one of the fields that I left long this year. The best showing this year has been the Red Admirals which I have seen more of this year than in the previous five years we have been here. There have also been countless Meadow Browns but there always are. Gatekeepers are flying at the moment but again numbers perhaps down on previous years.

New Species - hidden in plain sight

In retrospect it seems bizarre that I didn't spot the Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) as it is 2m tall and very big all round. My excuse is that I assumed it was Hogweed which is found spread throughout The Beeches. This is close by the Fleabane in the wetter part of the site and is another indication that our most damaged field is recovering well.

Fleabane back in numbers

A couple of Fleabane plants appeared a couple of years ago in the dampish corner of the field that I was restoring from its previous use as a quad bike track. I let them flower and seed and now I have a whole patch of more than twenty plants all in a tight area.

Orchid total reaches 123

A surprise with two Broad-leaved helleborines found in the meadow area of the West Field. Last year there was one helleborine under a tree in that field but it became the site of a major rabbit excavation and so has not reappeared. With these two last additions to the orchid count the 2016 total is 123, a massive rise on the count last year of 63. 120 of those were Common Spotted Orchids and just 3 were helleborines.

New species - Red-legged Partridge

I spotted this on our garden wall this evening. I have seen them in the area but generally on farmers' fields and not here at The Beeches before. Cool looking bird.

Almost a herd....

We usually get Fallow Deer in ones or twos, occasionally threes but five came skittering through today.

New species close by - Adder

No photo but a few weeks ago I disturbed a snake sunning itself at the edge of the field in front of the house. It slipped into my neighbour's garden and I didn't see enough to ID it although it was bigger and moved faster than a slow worm. Yesterday my neighbour found an adder 'digesting' in his wood shed so I think that explains my sighting.

Third waxcap species in July......

I expect the earliest waxcaps sometime in August but so far despite the long dry spell in July there have been three species that I would expect in September onwards. The last one is this Fibrous Waxcap (Hygrocybe intermedia) mashed up by my mower following H. citrinovirens and the rare H. ingrata earlier. Now it has been raining the last couple of days there may be some coming through shortly.

Stinkhorn

Not on my patch but by the lane that leads to us I found this Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) - a new species for me. A very distinctive fungus.

Common Visitor

The Green Woodpecker is becoming a daily visitor. It may be the ant heaps I am uncovering as I cut the fields or maybe it's just a good year for ants here. Here it is hunting for ants on the drive.

My house is full of grasshoppers....

At last count there were in excess of 20 grasshoppers in the porch plus grasshoppers all over the house. I think the above is yet a third species after the Meadow and Field Grasshoppers already identified. These look like the Common Green Grasshopper (Omocestus viridulus) to me (although I don't have a grasshopper book as such so I might be wrong).

Another grasshopper in the house

I don't have to go anywhere to find new grasshoppers - this one was on the front door. A little covered in spiders web but identifiable as a Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus brunneus).

Bed and breakfast

There are a number of Six -spot Burnets around and I found these two asleep at the end of the day. Obviously if you are a day-flying moth there is no place better to rest up than on Knapweed leaving you free to have breakfast as soon as you wake up!

Good year for grasshoppers

There is a lot of wildlife here that is having a bad year - butterflies, swallows and sparrows for example. Grasshoppers are having a great year however. Each step in the field can initiate a swarm of fleeing grasshoppers. I left the front door open for a while and came back to find five Meadow Grasshoppers in the porch. The photo is one of the porch squatters sitting on the doormat.

New Species - Whitethroat

No photo but I saw a Whitethroat in the garden for the first time. I was alerted by its call which I didn't recognize but I knew it was different so I got the binos out to see what was making the call.

White Plume Moth

Bindweed can be a bit dominant so I was pulling some of it up when I disturbed one of the species that comes with it - the White Plume Moth (Pterophorus pentadactyla). This extravagantly coiffured moth is one of the easier moths to identify.

Quaking Grass

I first found the delightful Quaking Grass (Briza media) in 2014 and I was hoping that it would spread or that I would find more pockets of it but here we are two years later and I can still only find a couple of spikes of it in exactly the same place where it was two years ago and indeed last year. In the background is the group of Hygrocybe ingrata that I reported on last post.

Hygrocybe ingrata - rare waxcap in June!

This waxcap (that has no English name) occurred last year here at The Beeches - in October. I believe that was the first record for Monmouthshire at the time. It is here again in June (well actually 1st of July but it is a few days old judging by its appearance). I have seen another waxcap here a few days ago H. citrinovirens - the Citrine Waxcap so it must be the strange weather we are having that is bringing them out early.

New species at the bird feeders

Two new species in fact - first Grey Squirrels who have found the feeders after more than two years and are a daily nuisance starting at dawn. They are a pain for us but worse for the birds was the Sparrowhawk that visited this afternoon and took one of the young Blue Tits. I know that the Sparrowhawk has its own family to feed but I feel a bit bad providing a breakfast bar for Sparrowhawks (see picture above). I think now that it's summer the birds will have to manage on their own for a bit until the Squirrels and Sparrowhawk look elsewhere.

Marsh Bedstraw

I have just one spot where I found Marsh Bedstraw about three years ago. I am always amazed at how a very little management makes such a great difference to flowers. Give them the opportunity and they will spread. A few plants three years ago is now a big bed of this delicate Bedstraw, so much nicer than the gross, blowsey Cleavers (aka Goose Grass).

Banded demoiselle

I spotted this rather fetching damselfly whilst walking in a field close to the Wye. The photo is a bit ropey )just snapped on the phone) but the insect was stunning. It's a new Odonatid for me.

Orchid milestone

Today I found my hundredth 2016 orchid here at The Beeches. Ninety nine of them are Common Spotted Orchids and one is a Broad-leaved Helleborine. A great result for wildlife management as is shown by the graph above. Starting in 2011 with 14 orchids and only 11 in 2012 we have therefore achieved a nine-fold increase in six years. The managemnt in fact consists only of two things - cutting for hay after the orchids have flowered and protecting the orcids from predation by rabbits. Now that we have reached 100 I think I may not bother any more with the rabbit protection.

Pond action

There was lots of Dragonfly action in the pond recently with multiple mating pairs of Azure Damselflies (photo above) and a couple of Broad-Bodied Chasers as well. Even more exciting was the newt that made a brief appearance. I wasn't expecting a newt to find this small pool some distance from any other standing water. I thought frogs were much more likely but no sign of them this year.

Jay vs Woodpecker (Round 2)

I find the Corvids a hugely entertaining group of birds and saw another example recently. In August 2013 I reported on (and photographed) a passing Jay which gratuitously flew at a Greater Spotted Woodpecker perched on the very top of a Larch tree and had several goes at trying to frighten it/dislodge it. The Woodpecker, despite the disparity in size, blanked it and stood firm and after a while the Jay gave up and flew off. The recent confrontation took place on our feeding station which is visible from the bed. I woke up to see a Jay perched just above the feeder that had a Greater Spotted feeding from it. The Jay stood there looking at the Woodpecker from a distance of about six inches and was ignored. After a while the Jay just dropped onto the Woodpecker who flew off as the Jay dropped all the way to the top of the wall below. The Woodpecker flew straight back as if nothing had happened and started feeding again. The Jay pretended he wanted to be on the wall and had found some interesting stuff there then flew off. Round 2 to the Woodpecker

More Damselfly action

I managed to get a picture of a male and female Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) and also came to the conclusion that I probably didn't see a Common Blue Damselfly after all as there were only Azure Damselflies at the pond today. The photo is of the Large Reds mating.