Sunday 6 October 2013

BATTY FUN GUY

I haven't had time yet to write up any of my recent travels, leave alone sift through all the pics.  But today, in a rare burst of autumn sunshine, we went for a walk on Ebernoe Common.

In the days when the South Downs and much of Sussex was covered with woodland, commoners used to graze their cattle in the woods.  This practice is now being reintroduced on commonland that still has wooded areas.  Like Ebernoe.  But it's sometimes disconcerting to meet a cow walking the same footpaths.

 Otherwise it looks like an ordinary wood.

 

I've no idea where the name comes from, by the way; it's a good old Saxon name probably from the Old English 'eg' meaning island and 'burna' meaning river (the town is completely surrounded by rivers).  Here's a lake in the forest.

 Ebernoe has about 200 residents, but has a nice cricket pitch and still has an annual Horn Fair (when 'much wassailing and cuckoldry there be').  The common is famous for having over 400 varieties of fungus and 16 of the 18 varieties of bat (flying, not cricket), including 2 that are now very rare. When we arrived, we found a leaflet saying that 1,000 varieties of fungus have been found.  But then it also said that there are only 16 varieties of bat in Britiain, so what do I know.

We started from the church which is an interesting building also in the woods.

I didn't see a bat, but I don't think I have ever seen so many toadstools.  It was impossible to walk through the forest without stepping on them.  Here are just a few (sorry about the crap pics; I'm no good with these sorts of close-ups with a point a shoot).
 

















Of course it's the dead trees that also attract the bats.  But they also need meadows, like this.



There is no industry there now, but there used to be a major brickworks.


Then at home, for lunch we had to have . . . . yes . . . . mushrooms.
 
This sort of meal is now second nature for someone who has studied fungus for as long as I have, and who knows exactly where to get the best mushrooms.  These came from Tescos.


3 comments:

  1. The wood looks really old. The cow's actually moving at last. Great fungi--just need a few fairies running around underneath.

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  2. Looks like a really nice area!! Why is there such a proliferation of fungi in that particular area? Is it because of all the rivers and lakes making it a damp area? I'd love to photograph there myself. Fungi are one subject I've rarely shot as I just don't get many don't this way.

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  3. You are up to your little verbal tricks again. You are in good form so must be feeling frisky and happy. Your pictures were better than the stuff I take with my digital, but it is all I own now. Glad to have you posting and am awaiting your travel tales. It is a cold and windy night here in western Canada. I look forward to photos of warm places. We will not be going south this year. Sigh.

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