The Season of Fruits and Fungi

Although the weather has been somewhat overcast of late, there are lots of wildlife activities taking place in the countryside. Jays have been prominent everywhere, seemingly collecting acorns to store for the winter months. These shy colourful birds are almost unmistakable with their distinctive colouring, and are even more remarkable when seen from above, with bright blue patches on their wings, with a white rump. They are quite shy, but are seen in good numbers in the autumn around the village especially where there are lots of oak trees. They breed in deciduous and coniferous woodland and occasionally visit bird tables when food is scarce. Their flight is also recognisable as they seem to glide through areas with little undulation, with rare need to flap their wings. They have a raucous cry or call, sounding like a ‘kraih, kraih”. Look out for kingfishers on the canal. Several have been seen on the canal recently, and these colourful fast flying birds are often missed because they are so small. Look out for them on branches of trees anywhere along the canal between Waverton and Christleton lock, almost always on the side opposite the towpath. I’ve put the last picture of the swallows gathering outside our house. They seem to have finally left on their long migration journey about the first week in October.

Several families from the village have told me about the colourful fly agaric mushrooms appearing in their gardens. This is the best time of year to see them, and the most prominent place in the village where they appear is behind the Library Van-lay by in Quarry lane. These colourful toadstools are the ones illustrated in children’s books, but they are poisonous and shouldn’t be picked or eaten. There are lots of other varieties of fungi to be seen, and field mushrooms often appear in the fields towards Littleton and even in the churchyard. One of my favourites is the sooty inkcap, and these too are very common around the village, and on fields in Boughton. There are small puff balls appearing near hedgerows, but the biggest I’ve seen is illustrated by young ladies from the Primary School back in the 1970’s. The one illustrated was found in Woodfields. There are lots of bracket fungi to be seen almost anywhere in the Parish, often on dying or decaying oaks and silver birch. Several types are illustrated with this article with my particular favourite being “chicken in the woods”. This sulphurous yellow bracket fungi is usually found high up on trees, and seems to grow bigger as the season progresses. The ones shown were photographed on oaks at Hockenhull Platts.

Finally my picture of the month has to be the kestrel I photographed whilst enjoying a walk to Hilbre Island. Many people will know that I’ve not been too well of late, and I’ve not been able to take my camera with me due to the weight. On this occasion I did and came across this hovering kestrel as we were leaving” Big Eye” It was hovering into the wind and had no inkling that I was standing underneath watching. As a result I was able to take three or four good pictures before it glided to another spot where it had sensed some prey.