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was later seen under a decaying log in Hawkwood.
The only fungus specially noted was 'Cramp balls'
(Daldinia concentrica) on hawthorn and ash logs.
There were few flowers - some greater Stitchwort,
lesser celandine, wood sorrel at the northern
edge of Hawkwood, hairy bittercress, thale cress,
a small patch of coltsfoot, dandelions, ground
elder, and some richly-red red-deadnettle. Fox-
tail grass was beginning to flower. Blackthorn,
wild cherry and gorse were in bloom;oak, horn-
beam and birch in catkin; and female willow
catkins beginning to swell with seed
We were lucky, because on a bush on Pole Hill a
blackcap stayed to give us a good view of him.
A great tit, with a 2-note song - not the easily
recognised 'teacher, teacher' - sat for a while
on a dead tree branch.
We walked along the forest ridge and down to
Yardley stream and past the Waltham Forest
Horticultural Nursery in the grounds of the old
Hawkwood House. We looked for signs of the old
enclosure on the slopes above it, where the house
grounds are being absorbed into the forest -
pine trees, old ditches and remains of iron
fencing
Roddicks Field, renamed Yates Meadow by the Epping
Forest Conservators, now that it is part of the
forest, gave us quite a climb up to Gilwell Lane.
The Conservators plan to keep this field as
meadow, by grazing it and by taking off a hay
crop. The field shows signs of slumping, quite
a bit of which happened after the bad winter of
1963. Its uneven slopes have boggy patches
where clumps of soft rush grow.
By Gilwell's covered reservoir, a heron was being