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When Debbie Carter was out in the woods last month (ie, before the heavens opened!) she spotted lots more fungi - Dick Budden also spotted a couple - clear to see why the possibly-field-blewitt might be that, but not clear why its name is spelt that way! They are edible but as with all fungi, don't even think of it unless you're an expert, as eating the wrong one could cost you your life. Debbie spotted yet more, in the woods on Compton Mckenzie’s land on the Stavordale Estate near Pen Sel Wood, which is connected to part of the ancient Gillingham hunting forest created for King John. The wood urchin is edible, but personally I'd regard it as no more edible than its alter ego, the hedgehog! The turkey tail on the left is now the third colourway for this one - my personal favourite - on this website: see above on this page, and also on the Field Trips page.
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 Evgeniy Yakhontov, CC BY-SA 3.0 The Guardian newspaper reported at the weekend that Bellway Homes has has been fined £600,000 for carrying out a demolition at a site inhabited by Soprano Pipistrelle bats. Bellway also had to pay £30,000 costs and donated £20,000 to the Bat Conservation Trust.
They went ahead with the demolition even after being told they needed to obtain 'mitigation' and a licence from Natural England. I would think/hope that's quite a lot of money, even for a housing developer. ... but these two often wake up in our homes if it's warm and bright indoors. I think it's good news that I've had more small tortoiseshells in my home this year than for several previous years. So far, they've woken up on mild, sunny days and I've just let them out. But it's now too cold and there aren't enough nectar-bearing flowers around for them to survive, so Butterfly Conservation has given some very helpful advice on what to do. Go to the Wildlife Tips page for the details.
There's a lot going wrong, and a lot that could be going better. Wild Justice don't just wring their hands, they do something. Here are some of their ideas for what you could do, too.
The Guardian newspaper has the People's Choice finalists for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Izzy Fry: you up for this next year?
You can browse all the entries and vote. The Guardian newspaper has this piece with a bit more information about the new Environmental Land Management scheme. If you prefer to have it straight from the horse's mouth, here's the Government's own. Let's hope that the proposed Farming Investment Fund, 'which will support innovation and productivity.', will support the Farm Clusters Peter Thompson spoke so inspiringly about. They say, 'This will open for applications next year and will be used to offer grants for equipment, technology and infrastructure for the future.' Or will they come under one of the ELMS's three 'components' - the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery or Landscape Recovery? All sounds a bit confusing. We can but travel hopefully. Meanwhile, it seems to me a lot of local fields are lying fallow instead of being ploughed. Perhaps they always have, but equally, maybe they're looking after their soil.
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The pages now display photos of fungi taken by members. This one by Andrew Carter - Trametes versicolour.
Please do not eat any of them. AuthorIf it's not me, Elizabeth Forbes, website editor (keen but ignorant), I'll say so. Archives
January 2021
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