Dusky Puffball

Despite wearing a large, very padded orange safety jacket, it felt surprisingly chilly up in Claughton Quarry. We spent most of the day staring hard at moorland vegetation, recording twenty-three permanent quadrats in great detail, and another ten at a more superficial level. Although I took plenty of monitoring photographs, there wasn't time to do any landscape or wildlife photography. Mind you, it was pretty quiet with only a couple of ravens and a kestrel hunting in the quarry, though Pete caught a glimpse of a hen harrier which had disappeared by the time I looked up!

There was a scatter of grassland fungi, including a small group of dusky puffballs. This is a widespread species of coniferous woodland and heathland, but is one that I've rarely seen, a result of living in an part of the country with predominantly base-rich soils.It's characteristically quite a deep brownish colour and has rather long shaggy scales when young.

We finished work at 3, and after a cup of tea in our room, went out again for a walk along the River Lune. It was then that I realised I only had one safety boot in the car - presumably I'd left the other one in the brickworks car-park - hopefully it'll still be there tomorrow! Our return route took us over the moors again, as I was hoping that there might be a good sunset, but I was to be disappointed (see extra).

Another excellent evening meal and a better night's sleep - a result of plenty of physical exercise and the knowledge that we would definitely finish the work tomorrow.