Sunday 8th & Thursday 10th January 2017

Sunday 8th January 2017:
It was foggy start to my visit today although it did lift eventually to reveal more visibility.  I had decided to walk a circuit around Hillditch Pool and Coppice for this visit and it proved to be the right call as I added three more species to the bird list.  A Moorhen was present on the pool, a pair of Bullfinch were in the coppice and a small flock of Siskin were feeding in the Alders along the pool.


It also proved fruitful on the fungi front with Purple Jellydisc, Crystal Brain and Willow Bracket all recorded.


Willow Bracket (Phellinus igniarius)

Crystal Brain (Exidia nucleata)

Tuesday 10th January 2017:
The dull mild weather continues and for today's visit I decided to walk the area of the common that is next to Cooks Garden Centre on the western side of the common.  This area is cut off from the rest of the common via the Worcester Rd and is adjacent to an industrial estate, a caravan park and a housing estate.  Sadly this is all too obvious as the amount of rubbish in this area was horrendous.  From drinks cans chucked in bushes to burnt out piles of rubbish to fly tipped waste and tethered ponies it didn't make for a particularly pleasant walk.  The only area that was relatively rubbish free was the area between Cooks and the Birch coppice.  This area is a mixture of Broom and grassland and in the past is an area I have recorded Green Hairstreak butterfly in, so will still be worth keeping an eye on later in the year.


I did mange to pick up a few more species here though in Common Buzzard and Collared Dove.  A flyover Lesser Black-backed Gull and Jackdaw were also noted.  During the walk I also recorded some more Purple Jellydisc fungi and Oyster Mushroom.


Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Purple Jellydisc (Ascocoryne sarcoides)

Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)