Saturday 7th January 2017

The weather had returned to it's usual grey, overcast self today and likewise I wasn't particularly inspired either.  But I still decided to face the gloom and spend some time mooching about on the common.  This proved to be worthwhile as I managed to tick of a few more bird species on the year list with Chaffinch, Redwing and Herring Gull all added in the northern section of the common. 


I then headed over to the wooded area at the south east end of the common.  I added 2 more bird species here with Goldcrest and Treecreeper.  Also of interest was seeing a small number of Jays mooching about amongst the leaf litter in the predominately oak woodland.  That said none wanted to play ball and pose for a decent photo.  It always amazes me how shy, for such a brightly coloured birds, Jays are.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

I decided to spend some time in this area and managed to find a couple more species fungi in Candlesnuff and Yellow Brain. 

Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)

Yellow Brain (Tremella mesenterica)

Other than that it was a fairly uneventful visit but it's always going to be in the first couple of months of the year.  Still, there are still a few more common species of bird I need to pick up and more winter fruiting fungi to find.