In addition, the presence of snakes, being protected animals, may well mean the local
council will have to leave the waste land alone, which is also a good thing.
We had a fortnight in Scotland in early September, with sunny, dry weather much of the
time, except in Glencoe of course, and returned to find the garden parched. Although we
had quite a bit of rain mid May and much of June, wc have had very little since then. In
Scotland there were loads of fungi, including some good edible ones such as Chanterelles,
but back here my favourite Belhus Woods Country Park could produce only 3 kinds in two
hours of looking one day. Today I was in Garnetts Wood with Nigel Wood, allegedly
hunting fungi, but few were to be found. 1 had hoped that North Essex was damper than
here, but, sadly, not. However, we found two different Myxomycetes, and a snake. I assume
it was probably an Adder, as it was quite small, maybe 20-30cm long, and was brown, and
there were no obvious water-bodies close by except a very shaded woodland pond. Later,
Nigel told me there was a better pond not far away, so it could have been a Grass Snake.
Whichever it was, the snake was in a sunny open ride through the wood, and Nigel was
pleased because they had managed this ride with snakes in mind, and, Io and behold, one
had arrived. Nearby was a pile of old logs as a convenient hibernaeulum, and varied
vegetation but plenty of sunshine. I hope the snake stays.
A week later we visited Hainault Forest, and found very little by way of fungi, except in
one patch. Much of the landscape at Hainault Forest is sandy gravel stuff, which does
not hold any water, but on Cabin Hill, which is mainly a clay cap, it was much better.
See the report of the foray here on another page.
The following week, now early October, my husband and I explored Weald Country
Park, near Brentwood, as I was due to lead a foray there next day. We scoured the woods
and grassland, each of us going in slightly different directions, and we both got thoroughly
lost, separately, but there was nothing to see after 2 Vi hours of brisk walking. After the
good haul the previous weekend, I was amazed. So that foray was cancelled. We hope
for better conditions next year, as that area can be excellent.
In the middle of October a group of us went to find fungi in the new Three Gorges EWT
reserve at Chafford Hundred, the new town in Thurrock. It was a beautiful day with lots
of sunshine, though actually the sunshine dappled by leaves above makes it harder to
spot the fungi. We started with Warren Gorge, and found quite a lot of fungi but actually
they turned out to be large numbers of not many different species. Later, three of us
walked on to Grays Gorge, which has been in EWT hands for many years. Here we
found lots of different kinds, though none rare, but it gave me a huge amount of homework
identifying them all. I had never studied fungi on the chalk before; there are some different
species here from the ones I find around Havering and Brentwood woods. Wc noticed
that a number of summer flowers were still out, notably Yellow-wort and Round-leaved
Wintergreen, both beautiful and characteristic flowers of old chalk pits. We also admired
the Mare's-tail in the lakes, which is an uncommon plant due to the scarcity of lakes on
chalk soils.
6
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 55, January 2008