Beacon Fell and Boilton Wood

With a heavy frost the night before and a cool Northwesterly breeze i set off for Beacon Fell this morning not knowing what the day might have in store,Beacon Fell is a wonderful family location with plenty of car parking,toilets a cafe and visitor centre plenty for minds both young and old to enjoy, it is well sign posted and when you get there the one way system is easy to follow, car parking all day is just £1 per car.

Once the car was parked i strode off following the path to the summit an early sight was these chewed up fir cones showing that squirrels are active although none where seen.

fir cones eaten by squirrels
The still air was continually interrupted by the noisy cry of male pheasants, these stunning coloured birds are now in full breeding colours, and one that took off from right under my feet ran past showing his full range of golden browns on his flank, and blues and reds on his face with his white marked beady eye plain to see.All around when you looked close in the heather and lower needles in the trees where numbers of the seven spotted ladybirds awake after a long sleep,these wonderfully marked beetles respondent in their red wing cases hiding what ferocious predators they are.

emerging seven spotted lady birds
Another emerging insect was this Queen common wasp ,making her way out of the litter at the base off the tree,she will fly and find a new nest site and in just two months will have a nest of hundreds of fierce predator children hunting for food for the larvae in the nest.

Queen common wasp
A new type of fungi i spotted was the common cavalier only found around conifer and fir trees.

The small pools near the visitor centre where full of frogspawn and as i left Beacon Fell i was left to ponder the local story that at night all the carvings in the wood come to life if they do i would not like to meet this special guardian.

Or the fell troll that buries trees upside down
After leaving Beacon Fell i made my way down to Boilton Wood where i had been asked to identify some newly emerged fungi and upon arrival i was greeted by a magnificent display of late oyster mushrooms this delicious fungi is entering the last few weeks of its season and was on a fallen beech tree.

oyster mushrooms
Seventeen types of fungi where found ,i hope you enjoy some of these pictures.

sulphur tuft

fairies bonnets
As i looked around the wood i spotted another type of ladybird the native orange spot, they where all gathered together newly emerged after their winter sleep to see so many together is unusual.

orange spotted ladybirds
As i made my way out of the woods the floor was carpeted by the yellow Coltsfoot flower and on nearly every flower was some type of fly drawn by the colour and scent of this vibrant flower, in weeks to come i will explain more about this unique partnership from the early spring flowers and insects.

yellow dung fly on coltsfoot
We are now at the spring equinox so the nature will start emerging faster and faster ,the first sand martins have been seen now, so more visitors are due to arrive with the first swallows not far behind ,more next time natureman Andy