Leader : Louise Hill

 Leader : Francis Hickenbottom, assisted by Kevin Gilfedder.

The venue is the site of almshouses, built in 1896, and now occupied by people who have been involved with the Church of England. There are lawns between the groups of houses which have been mown regularly for the last 150 years or more, but have had no weedkiller or fertiliser applied. This ancient short turf grassland forms a very rare habitat and contains a wealth of rare fungi. Over 60 species of fungi were found during our 2½ hours walk around these lawns.

The Nats members were then given a gentle warm-up, finding a good-sized patch of Orange Peel Fungus followed by several commoner species such as Shaggy Ink-cap, Fly Agaric and a couple of species of purple and pinkish Brittlegills. We moved on to a section under tall pine trees, which proved to be well stocked with small grey or brown species, but also examples of Aniseed Funnel, Wood Woolly-foot, Charcoal Burner and the Blusher. An interesting singleton next to a pine tree, and probably feeding on its roots, was Dyer’s Maze-gill. We concluded this section with the find of Ear-pick Fungus, a small Ascomycete with spines apparently reminiscent of historic ear picks and which grows on pine cones.

Moving across the first lawn we began to find the club fungi, corals and earth-tongues which are the specialities of the site. Francis collected several yellow club fungi for later identification, though he was pretty certain about the Apricot Club because of its white tip. There were plenty of Earthy Powdercaps growing in rings, as well as more Fly Agaric. The first waxcaps were then discovered – Snowy and Parrot Waxcaps to start with, and then plenty of Blackening Waxcap. The star of the show was kept till almost the last – a couple of very distinctive Pink Ballerina Waxcaps. These have become an emblem in the campaign for the conservation of ancient undisturbed grassland habitats.

The lawns also provided us an example of a fungus which parasitises insect larvae, Scarlet Catterpillar Club Cordyceps militaris. It has been said that almost all species of insect have their own species of Cordyceps parasite, which would mean that there are a vast number of different species of the parasite, all finely evolved in sync with the host animal. It looked superficially similar to the many yellow club fungi we were seeing, but its yellow was densely spotted with red and the mature tips divided into several points.

Other species were confirmed by interesting and fairly simple techniques. To intensify the smell of some of the specimens Francis showed us a good trick, which is to place them in a plastic pot for a few minutes. Comparing the smell of an empty pot with the now-intensified fungal smell was very successful in improving the chances of using this feature for ID purposes. Then there was the taste test – chewing and then spitting out a small sample of the cap was very effective in identifying Peppery Bolete! For other species, chemical tests were used – ammonia and guaiacum produced purple and blue colours to identify Ugly Milk-cap and Bloody Brittlegill respectively.

We then moved into the pleasant dining room to eat our lunches, and Francis gave a couple of demonstrations. Firstly he showed us some gill sections he had prepared beforehand to show the spores of a Basidiomycete fungus. Then he showed us how to photo-stack pictures to obtain a much more 3-dimensional impression of a wasp’s face. His set-up was of a good microscope with a mobile phone attached to the top of the eyepiece. After setting the phone’s camera to manual he simply took a photo, moved the focus knob slightly, took another and repeated the process a dozen times or more. Software stacked all the images together to achieve a very satisfying final result.

So a very interesting and fruitful day for all. The Almshouses provided us with plenty of examples of all forms of fungi, from Agarics 15cm across, to spindly stalks only a couple of centimetre tall, from ‘standard’ gill fungi to the waxy gills of the Waxcaps to pore fungi like Boletes, and those with no gills or pores like the Clubs and Earthtongues. It was a very interesting morning and we thank Francis and Kevin for their time and expert knowledge of this challenging group of organisms. Also many thanks to the residents who made us a welcome cup of tea in their pleasant meeting room.

Hemsworth Almshouses Nov 7 2021

Common Name	Latin Name	Buczacki page No
Earthy Powdercap	Cystoderma amianthinum	68
Shaggy Inkcap	Coprinus comatus	70
Sulphur Tuft	Hypholoma fasciculare	112
a Pinkgill	Enteloma sp	126
Grey Knight	Tricholoma terreum	158
a Funnel	Clitocybe sp	166
Aniseed Funnel	Clitocybe odora	166
Wood woollyfoot	Collybia peronata	172
Club-foot	Ampulloclitocybe clavipes	172
Milky Bonnet	Hemimycena lactea	180
Pine Conecap	Strobilurus tenacellus	200
Clustered Domecap	Lyophyllum decastes	208
a Cavalier	Melanoleuca sp	210
Drab Bonnet	Mycena aetites	218
Collared Mosscap	Rickenella swartzii	236
Orange Mosscap	Rickenella fibula	236
Fly Agaric	Amanita muscaria	244
The Blusher	Amanita rubescens	246
Blackening Waxcap	Hygrocbe conica	266
Pink Ballerina Waxcap	Porpolomopsis (Hygrocybe) calyptryiformis	266
Oily Waxcap	Hygrocybe quieta	268
Scarlet Waxcap	Hygrocybe coccinea	268
Butter Waxcap	Hygrocybe ceracea	270
Parrot Waxcap	Hygrocybe psittacina	272
Slimy Waxcap	Hygrocybe irrigata	272
Heath Waxcap	Hygrocybe laeta	274
Meadow Waxcap	Hygrocybe pratensis	274
Snowy Waxcap	Hygrocybe virginea	276
False Saffron Milkcap	Lactarius deterrimus	282
Ugly Milkcap	Lactarius turpis	290
Charcoal Burner	Russula cynoxantha	298
Purple Brittlegill	Russula atropurpurea	304
Bloody Brittlegill	Russula sanguinaria	308
Humpback Brittlegill	Russula caerulea	320
Frosted Webcap	Cortinarius hemitrichus	348
a Fibrecap	Inocybe sindonia	369
a Poison-pie	Hebeloma sp	380
Peppery Bolete	Myriostoma piperatus	408
Slippery Jack Bolete	Suillus luteus	416
Common Puffball	Lycoperdon perlatum	432
Dusky Puffball	Lycoperdon nigrescens	432
Pestle Puffball	Lycoperdon excipuliforme	434
Yellow Club sp.	Clavaria sp.	452
Wrinkled Club	Clavulina rugosa	456
Meadow Coral	Clavulinopsis corniculata	458
Apricot Club	Clavulinopsis luteoalba	460
Earpick Fungus	Auriscalpium vulgare	470
Dyer’s Mazegill	Phaeolus schweinitzii	497
Scarlet Caterpillar Club	Cordyceps militaris	598
Earthtongue	Geoglosssum cookeanum	600
Orange Peel Fungus	Aleuria aurantia	608

 

Meeting Start Time: 10am, Denaby Ings Car Park.

Weather
The weather was chilly but with bright warm sunshine.

Description
Six members of the Society met in the car park and all walked alongside Pastures Road to access the marsh on the northern side of the lake in order to extend the area of search in both a westerly and easterly direction. Survey in the marsh commenced at 10.30am. One surveyor left after about 1 hour to go and search other parts of the reserve for plant galls. Water levels were significantly higher than on the previous visit. Previously areas of search that had been dry were now under at least 6 inches of water.

Four members of the group continued the search after 12 noon to inspect the margins of the marsh on the western side of the Pastures Road but the accessible habitat was not suitable for nests. The marsh was inspected from the roadside and water was observed flowing under Pasture Roads from the main lake  in a westerly direction. The western marsh was considered suitable for harvest mouse and should be targeted in future survey work if safe access can be gained to the area.

Survey Technique
The survey method used was careful visual inspection of standing and fallen clumps of vegetation looking for evidence of small woven nests. A smartphone with GPS was used to record the location of each nest. The Recorder also used GPS tracking to record the areas of search. NB the other surveyors searched in similar areas.

 

Table 1

No	Grid Reference	Time	Description
17	SE 49982 01044	10.55	Single nest. 75 cm above ground. In partially fallen Phalaris arundinacea.
18	SE 49984 01051	10.58	Single loose nest. Finely shredded leaves. 70cm above ground. In Phalaris arundinacea.
19	SE 49996 01000	11.08	Single, tightly knitted nest of thin leaf shreds. 50cm above ground in damp Glyceria maxima.
20	SE 50009 00986	11.13	Single flimsy nest. 70cm in Glyceria maxima.
21	SE 50004 00967	11.19	Half-built, flimsy nest. 50 cm in Phalaris arundinacea.
L1	SE 50015 00961	11.24	Feeding platform. Chewed vegetation. Many small blunt ended olivegreenish droppings. 1-2 mm x 5mm. In Glyceria maxima.
L2	SE 50016 00960	11.36	Feeding platform. Chewed vegetation. Many trampled blunt ended olivegreenish droppings. In Glyceria maxima.
22	SE 50101 00889	11.43	Well made tightly woven single nest. 50 cm above water. In half fallen Phragmites australis supported by fence.
L3	SE 50076 00912	11.52	Feeding platform. Chewed vegetation. Many trampled blunt ended olivegreenish droppings. In Glyceria maxima.

Other observations
The decayed carcass of a deer (Roe Deer) were found by the fence at the edge of the marsh beside Pastures Road. SE 49886 01053

A barn owl was seen to leave the low rectangular pole-mounted nest box near SE 50031 01005. It dislodged two pellets which fell on the ground below. These were later collected for analysis.

The small ‘feeding platforms’ were located in the Glyceria marsh. These comprised approx 1 inch diameter roughly circular platforms created from short I inch long (and shorter) sections of chewed vegetation. One had a collection of many very small cylindrical blunt ended very small olive green friable droppings and the other two had a trampled mass of similar droppings. These are very similar to Water Vole droppings but are too small and are presumably Bank or Field Vole droppings. (See photos, below).

see www.ptes.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Your-guide-to-looking-for-signs-of-water-voles-and-otherriverbank-species.pdf

Conclusions
The presence of further harvest mouse nests was confirmed, linking the two areas where nests were found on the previous visit and also extending the distribution to the farthest accessible eastern limit of the marsh (marked by a fence line). A mixture of tall monocots (Phalaris arundinacea, Glyceria maxima and Phragmites australis) were all utilised as nesting locations. Nest height range from 50cm – 75cm high but in many instances the vegetation had already collapsed to semi-horizontal positions.

Survey effort – 5 surveyors for 1.5 hrs + 1 surveyor for 1 hr = 8.5 hrs search time to locate 6 nests.
Find rate = 1.41 nests per hour.

Pink track = first visit search route
Green Track = second visit search route

Numbered Yellow Dot = Harvest Mouse nests (first visit)
Numbered Red Dot = Harvest Mouse nests (second visit)
L = Bank/Field Vole feeding station and latrine

Image : Google Earth

Louise Hill