Unwinding in the mist

After the very successful 'Celebrate Nature' exhibition, it was a joy to get back out to Old Sulehay with my camera on a foggy November morning. The reserve was was eerily silent, apart from the gentle drip of water from the forest trees but the leaf colours were intense and there were still plenty of fungi to be found...


It's always exciting when the first Earth-tongues appear (see extra) - a real sign of winter as they are usually at their best around the start of December, Spider webs festooned with droplets and the contorted shapes of the old trees in the mist made it a memorable visit.


I was out again late in the afternoon with Pete, visiting a pond that will be restored this winter. The land next to it had been sown with a pollinator mix which contained a large population of Forked Catchfly, a Eurasian species that is increasingly frequently recorded as a contaminant of similar mixes, occasionally establishing for a while. As temperatures continue to rise it may well become established in the UK.