Helpston savannah

Another glorious autumn day, though with a rather fresh breeze which made it feel cooler. Pete and I headed out around lunchtime to see if there were any fungi on the Paradise Willows, which were one of the target sites in our ongoing survey of the local area. These are located in the fens - when we arrived they were windblown and completely devoid of any bracket fungi, so we decided to head to the Woodcroft area, which has many veteran oaks and which we thought would be more sheltered.

We'd only planned a short walk, but ended up doing a 5.5 km circuit of footpaths from Woodcroft, out along Maxham's Green Lane and back along the edges of Oxey, Simon's and Hayes Woods. This area encloses many ancient oaks, and we found several with good bracket fungi, including one with three different species! This view of the area shows some of the oaks, with an abandoned damp clay field in the foreground, now dominated by Wood Small-reed. Unplanned nature recovery....

Extras include a view towards the Welland valley with a golden-leaved Ash and Helpston church tower visible, and the glorious golden hues of Field Maple along Woodcroft Road.