Snow at Sandgate

Just down the road to the Sandgate Conservation Area.
All the lakes are frozen across, fallen branches trapped in the ice

 

Trees stand out on the frozen heath but a stream in the wood still flows under the bridge.

Grasses are trapped in a frozen pond while a moorhen leaves its tracks, running across some softer ice in a sheltered corner.

Prize pictures!

Those nice people at Belvoir fruit farms have sent me a case of cordials. One of the photos I took for this blog won a prize in their "Hedgerow" photography competition. It was supported by Butterfly Conservation so I sent in one of my best butterfly shots of a red admiral with a small copper.

It's the first competition I've ever entered so I was a bit shocked to get a prize. I was one of five runners up to the winner. You can see all six prizewinning pictures on their facebook page.

I know a good recipe for turning elderflower cordial into elderflower champagne. So I won't be needing to go out picking elderflowers next spring!

Wood pecking

I watched a great spotted woodpecker making a hole in a rather old birch tree today. He came back several times to continue his activity. Is he starting a nest hole or looking for insects?

Fungus foray

We decided to look in the woods for fungi today. The surprise was that we found lots in our garden and the lane before we got to the woods.

First the garden:-


Next, the lane:-
And finally, the woods:-



The picture in the centre of the last row ls interesting. Fungus growing on fungus!

I think it will be difficult for me to identify all these fungi.

By clicking on a picture you should be able to see an enlarged view.

Bees revisited

Petra and I took a walk around our old Steyning patch today and revisited the wild bees' nest that I have pictured before. (See Honey bees (1)  (2)  (3)  (4) ) It's good to see they have survived another year and look set up with a good winter store again. The bees rewarded my interest with another sting on the head!

My new patch

 It is quite different from my old Steyning walks. I spend a lot of time in coniferous and mixed woodland, with patches of open heath, I don't see much agricultural land here. I am expecting to see quite a few interesting fungi amongst all the fallen and rotting logs. These are a few pictures to give a general idea.

October butterflies

Ivy is in flower and proving a big attraction to the late butterflies. There were about 30 on this bush. Several commas were feeding on the nectar. 

 

The most numerous butterfly was the red admiral, about 20 of them were feeding and I found one small copper among them.