Wildlife Circus

Golden spindles Clavulinopsis fusiformis Many of the species found in Kingston cemetery are typical of unimproved grassland and reflect a management regime sympathetic to both flora and fauna. Golden spindles have a pointed end not to be confused with blunt-ended grassland species known as clubs. These horse mushrooms were enormous! animal digging fly on the cap  Fungi provides animals with food and flies lay their eggs in the flesh which provide a source of food for bats and birds. Can you see the fly on the left. yellow stainer yellow wax cap One of unimproved grassland species and the other is a confusion species of field mushroom and definitely not edible! The orange peel fungus at the Dawson Road  entrance is even more spectacular than 2 weeks ago. Birds had left the remains of the poisonous yew seeds on one of the graves after consuming the red arils. We are trying to compile a list fo...

During a wet Sunday morning seven of us met at Tolworth Court Farm to survey the hedgerows. We used a standard methodology, as well as recording sheets provided to us during a training session at the Lower Moles office (Horton Country Park) earlier this Autumn. This required a qualitative analysis of the hedgerow from 'soup to nuts' i.e.: measurements of height, length, depth, canopy cover, species, evidence of nutrient enrichment, management, presence or absence of features including banks, fencing or 'nodes'. We found that the hedgerows were: species rich (ash, oak, willow, birch, alder, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dogwood and field maple) absent in invasive species; surprisingly absent in sycamore; recently managed, evidenced by the brush cutting of brambles; recently planted or 'gapped' (by field maples and dogwood); exhibiting some coppicing of willows; and as we reached the end of the first field, increasingly 'unimproved' with a marked abs...