17 March 2021

 

Had a day off today, so had a good walk around all of the courses and the Doghouse range.  The courses are looking good and it will be good to have the camera back in the golf bag again in a couple of weeks.

I had a good look for flowers today.  Most notable were the Violets which I found next to the 18th tee on the Green and in the Doghouse range.  Three different patches of plants with three very different colours - all seemed to be the same species - Sweet Violet. 

Sweet Violets Viola odorata [18th Green]

Sweet Violet Viola odorata [Doghouse range]

A couple of attractive garden escapees were also flowering.  Siberian Squill, on the edge of the 5th and 12th on the Red and Oregon-Grape around much of the boundary of the Red course.

Siberian Squill Scilla siberica [Doghouse range]

Oregon-Grape Mahonia aquifolium [12th Red]

More mundane, but perhaps more authentic, were the Ground Ivy and Dog's Mercury to the left of the 13th tee on the Red.

Ground-Ivy Glechoma hederacea [13th Red]

Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis [13th Red]

Other flowers visible included:

Green Alkanet Pentaglotis sempervirens [Doghouse range]

White Dead-nettle Lamium album [Doghouse range]

Red Dead-nettle Lamium purpureum [12th Red]

Common Whitlow-grass Erophila verna [Doghouse range]

Lesser Periwinkle Vinca minor [Doghouse range]

A few Bumblebees were around the gorse at the back of the 16th tee on the Red.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee [16th Green]

There were also a few birds around.

Pied Wagtail [reservoir]

Nuthatch [9th Red]

Green Woodpecker [2nd Blue]

2 March 2021

 

Sunny yesterday, but somewhat greyer today.  A few White Dead-Nettles are starting to flower around the 12th tee on the Red:

White Dead-Nettle Lamium album [12th Red]

A large flock of Fieldfares on the 11th fairway (Blue) with some Starlings and Redwings mixed in.

Fieldfares, Starlings and Redwings [11th Blue]

I had a brief view of a Kingfisher on the 2nd Blue - sadly too brief to get a photo, but this Treecreeper and Green Woodpecker were a little more helpful.

Treecreeper [3rd Blue]

Green Woodpecker [2nd Red]

10 November 2020

Large numbers of Mistle Thrush and Redwing behind the 13th green on the Red.

Not much else of note bird-wise.  No sign of the Crossbills today.

A couple of rather lonely plants in flower:

Harebell Campanula rotundifolia [5th Red]

Musk Thistle  Carduus nutans [4th Red]

White Dead-Nettle Lamium album [12th Red]

I found what I thought was a rather interesting looking fungus growing on nettles on the footpath between the 4th and 5th on the Red.  On submitting to the UK fungi forum, it turns out that it is actually a type of mould rather than a fungus.   

Mucilago crustacea [5th Red]

Thanks to Mike for replying

'... your find isn't actually a fungus, it's a myxomycete (slime mould), and in this case, it's one of the few myxo's which are readily and easily identifiable without microscopy - from "macro" characteristics alone.

Your find is absolutely typical of Mucilago crustacea, a myxo which always grows on living herbaceous material -primarily grasses, but also on nettles, rushes, etc. etc. - where it will always be found like this, quite low to the ground.'

There is also plenty of genuine fungi about.

Common Puffball - Lycoperdon perlatum [5th Red]

Snowy waxcap -  Cuphophyllus virgineus [5th Red]