clay beside the Ingrebourne, since they must have had about the same amount of rain.
However, there were some more fungi up, including another Blushing Rosette in a
different place.
On Monday 3rd October there was a partial eclipse of the sun. It was not total, but about
65% here at its maximum, which was about 10am. Earlier in the morning the sun was
obscured by cloud, but by 9:45 we had a clear view. The wind dropped, the birds were
quiet, and the light was that same sort of subdued ethereal quality that we are familiar
with in northern Scotland and the Outer Isles. We had a piece of card with a hole in and
a sheet of white paper behind, and got a clear picture of the little crescent that was the
sun. By 11 am it had almost gone back to normal.
A few days later I went to visit Garnetts Wood in North Essex to look for fungi. I do not
often stray into Vice County 19 to do some serious recording, but this woodland was
very interesting. The local ECC Warden, Nigel Wood, explained that this wood was
over 1,000 years old, and was probably part of the original wildwood. There are some
interesting old coppice areas, which have been returned to coppice. As well as the usual
Hazel, there is also a large and ancient coppice area of Small-leaved Lime, one of the
original species that clothed much of lowland England in the primaeval forest. Some of
the coppice stools are two, or even three, metres across, with the middle completely
empty but a ring of new shoots around the perimeter. It seems there is an impressive
array of wild plants there, and we looked at the fungi which are not yet fully recorded.
No work has been done on the Bryophytes, but Nigel would love someone to have a go
at them too, as they should be good in such an ancient and varied woodland.
Now it is late October and we put the clocks back this weekend. Thursday 27 October
reached about 22°C here, and the warmest place in Britain was Gairloch in north-west
Scotland! Although very warm, it rains about every third day, so everywhere is moist,
not to mention muddy. It has been, and still is, a very good year for fungi. I have found
or seen (because others with me have found) quite a number of fungi I had not seen ever
before, including Panther Cap Amanita pantherina (see foray report on another page),
and two very colourful Bonnets: the Saffrondrop Bonnet Mycena crocata and the
Burgundydrop Bonnet M. haematopus. A neighbour along my road had Plain Earthtongue
Geoglossum umbratile growing in several dozens on her front lawn. She had not even
noticed their presence because of the numerous autumn leaves and other tree debris
already there, but she was astonished when I pointed them out to her. I sent some to
Tony Boniface, who confirmed my tentative identification and said he had only a couple
of records for this in the whole of Essex.
At Bedfords Park at the end of October, we saw a Brown Rat (1 think it was, it had a tail
shorter than the whole length of its body) getting the nuts and seeds out of a bird feeder.
The bird feeder was one of those that is often described as squirrel-proof: a mesh bag
hanging from a pole by a long string. But the rat was clearly experienced at breaking the
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 49, January 2006 7