Bartley Heath, Hampshire - 09/04/08

Spontaneity is a great thing. What would have been a day inside alone, turned into a day of wonderful walking, good company and a handful of nice finds.

I awoke at about 8.15 ready for my 9 o'clock rendezvous with David. Obviously I had set the alarm early to make sure I had time for a shower and of course, a cup of Earl Grey to get me wide eyed. After checking that camera gear was all present, correct and charged, I left the house and headed towards the infamous 'Waitrose car park' meeting point. David and his Rhodesian Ridge-back Chaka were awaiting my arrival and once I set foot in the car, we were off on another adventure!

We arrived at the chosen destination at about 9.30am to find JP's car in the car park without a JP in it. We just knew he would be in a bush somewhere looking at a stick or looking at some dung through the magnifying glass, and sure enough he appeared moments later. I don't know if he had any mycological finds to declare, you'll have to ask him. As we pondered a direction to begin the journey with, David and John both from their pockets, produced the same simple map that they had coincidentally both printed last night. One look at the map, one point of the finger, and our journey begun.

The terrain was very odd, and definitely not what we wanted to be looking at if we were hunting for the very elusive Morel. Having said that, what originally was going to be a hunt for Morchella, actually turned into a full blown foray in which we searched many various types of terrain for fungi. The floor was very boggy, and it can't have been quarter of an hour until my left foot was completely soaked. To think, I even considered bringing my wellington boots, but nope, not Nick, that would be too logical! We wandered across the boggy field, heads and eyes firmly aimed at the floor, not only in search of mycological treats, but to aid the prevention of falling in a four foot deep hole containing water. (Oh come on, I know you've all seen that episode of the Vicar of Dibley. It happens!) We checked the stumps we passed, we picked up sticks we saw, but we really didn't find anything. We spent a good half an hour walking across the boggy field, but only so we could enter the Ash forest that we had come here for. Once inside, we still weren't convinced that the ground was right for Morchella or even for Mitrophora. There was a lot of leaf cover, mainly old oak leaves. Perhaps the most significant find from that section of woodland were the rock solid remains of last season's Russula Nigricans, which seemed to be in rather high numbers. We wandered through the woodland, still with eyes stuck to the ground, and that's when more things started to appear. My first decent sighting of the day was Daedaleopsis confragosa which was dancing its way up a birch tree in an orderly line. Once photographed, I moved on to see Trametes gibbosa sitting graciously on a fallen birch. Alongside the lumpy bracket, a Piptoporus betulinus protruded from the bark in the usual fan shape. There was the odd bit of deceased Trametes versicolor, which surprisingly retained its pastel blues and greens even after completely drying out and forming a rock solid mass of mess.



The Blushing Brackets were definitely out in force today, forming spirals gracefully in the trees atop our heads. Through more mud we squelched and as we neared a style, followed by a small stream crossing, the terrain began to subtly change. First I noticed that the ground was much harder, with chalk evident. Then the leaf cover disappeared to reveal much more crumbly earth. That was followed by Ramsons in massive clusters under the Ash Trees. Things were looking up on the Morchella front. I had my eye open keenly for want of spotting the beautiful white flowers of Wood Anemone, but I hadn't seen any, nor did I see any for the whole day. We spotted Primroses and Daffodils on the scrubland we entered and we knew instantly that if we were going to be successful in finding Morels today, this would be the area to find them. We three split up and each covered separate parts of the chalky hills. I wandered towards the road and left JP and David a few hundred yards back. In my head, I knew this was the right sort of terrain, and I could almost visualise the Morels popping up from between the Ramsons. But did we see any? Did we have any success? Did we heck! I did see a ladybird crawling about though, and I was craving some colour, so I snapped the little lass.



Next up, we decided to head to the walk by the Canal, mainly due to JP's previous Morchella elata sighting in the same area. We headed through a very rural part of Hampshire, over cattle grids, past onlooking Horses. It was all very Emmerdale- it had a very quaint and charming aura about it. Not that I could condemn the viewing of such a television atrocity. After walking through the built up area, we walked along a road for about half a mile, David licking his lips at the sight of every Pub we wandered past. We reached the canal and took the footpath down the side to join the parallel path. We wandered up the path with the canal for a way and realised it wasn't going to turn out any results due to the lack of ground. It was just a path next to the river, no room for anything but Hawthorn and the odd Dandelion to grow on. I spotted some Green Alkanet too, so I thought I'd make use of the Sigma 105mm!



We reached the end of the path and decided to rejoin a road, which of course just had to lead to a pub. Of course we just 'had' to make the most of the weather and the fact that there was a pub garden. Myself and David had a pint and John, not being a big drinker, had a lovely cup of tea We enjoyed a talk about experience, life, nature and mycology. It was nice to be able to sit amongst friends and dog and have a decent light hearted discussion about the nature that we love. After light refreshments and a chat, we decided to set off in the general direction of the car park, but that was miles away, and we certainly still had some 'oomph' left in us.

We made our way back across the scrubland where the Primroses and Daffodils were growing. I spotted a very odd plant with an odd profile, so naturally, I photographed it looking forward to getting home and asking these amazing WABbers to help me identify it. I can now say, with many thanks to those that helped, that I found Stinking Hellebore - Helleborus foetidus.

Along the way, I also found (Identified by Claire, thanks!) False Oxlip which I thought deserved a nice photograph.




We reached the woodland area once more and as we were well and truly out of luck and hope for Morchella, we decided to scan the forest quite thoroughly. This turned out to be a wise move as it wasn't long before we had Schizopora paradoxa, Ganoderma australe and Tremella mesenterica to put on the list of species. As we walked back, more and more specimens were noticed, including puffballs that had gone over, but still contained enough spores for a good old cloud. On our way back to the car, we encountered lots of moss covered deadwood, and we know which little red numbers favour that habitat! Of course, Sarcocypha austriaca! There weren't many, but there were enough to know that they were still fruiting well in early April. As we neared the car park, we had a sighting that I'd never encountered before- Lycogola terrestre. I was fascinated by these salmon pink/red balls sat on the end of a fallen Birch.

We eventually, after a successful, satisfying and stunning day, reached the car park. That's what I call a walk. A day out with the lads, looking for fungi, having a chat, visiting the pub for a swift pint, seeing new species, taking photographs, learning about Flora and Fauna. We might not have found our Morels, but come on, they're not that important are they?

All in a WABber's days work eh?

A great day. Hope you like the entry.

Nick