Frogspawn

Here and lots of it - certainly more than last year. I shall move some to the new pond although I am not certain that it is yet able to support tadpole development. I haven't seen a lot of frogs but they are definitely a few resident.

We've broken the 30 barrier...

The first time I've counted more than 30 fallow deer in one of our fields. I think they had been spooked by something as they looked a bit nervous - maybe a dog in the woods.

Intruiging DNA result

I sent off a dried portion of the suspected (very strongly by me) Bracken Plums and Custard (Tricholomopsis pteridicola) and have just got the results back. It turns out not to be that species, which to be fair has never been recorded in the UK, but only, I think in France and Spain. It has been returned as a yet undefined Tricholomopsis species which has been recorded once in Cornwall and once in Spain. It is probably the same as a couple of other finds in Wales some years ago that were not DNA tested but seem to be similar in field characteristics. So the next step is to send the remains of the dried specimen to the Kew fungarium and hope that a name and a definition emerges.