I seemed to have the whole country park to myself this morning, in the pouring rain and fog, but a good chance to admire the drainage along the woodland footpaths, which was successfully removing the water from most of the path!
Whilst there a Raven was calling, a deep low croak, from the green needles of the Macrocarpa tree. Perched alongside, to enable a good comparison was a Carrion Crow, looking much smaller.
Sweeping slowly through the branches was a Jay, the one bright spot in the misty gloom. The flash of white rump spotted just before it landed on the branch of the Black Poplar. A full house of our resident corvids occurred with a cackling flock of Jackdaws just around the Castle.
After the very dry November, the rain has certainly fallen in December turning the dry paths around the fields to slimy, slippery, muddy route – so perhaps take the clifftops or woodland to avoid this.
On the ground amongst the grasses, a few dark green circular stripes, with some large Field Blewitt mushrooms growing. A few more fungi also spotted included some old Parasols, some round hard black blobs of King Alfred’s Cakes, the flimsy Jelly Ear and some yellowish Cauliflower fungus as well as a small log with a patch of Candle Snuff fungus which has gone splat!
In the woodlands the Japanese Spindle has bright shiny green leaves and a few small pale pink berries, while the European Spindle has more spectacular bright pink and orange berries on its almost bare branches.
A single Holly berry spotted on one of our many Holly trees, while the Hawthorns still have a good crop, which will provide food for the birds over the rest of the winter.
A flock of Tits – Great, Blue and Long-tailed were moving through the Dogwood then flitted into the Willow, their calling alerting my attention.