Exotic visitors

I had an enjoyable and productive morning at Swaddywell NR going through the draft 2023-2033 management plan with the volunteer team. While we were sitting in the cabin reviewing the document, two Mandarin drakes and a duck dropped in to eat fallen seed from the feeders, accompanied by a mob of Jackdaws and three Stock Doves. Earlier we'd watched a Red Kite with a young bird in its talons land in the seepage area - it was hounded off the site by Carrion Crows.
After we'd completed the review we had a walk round the quarry looking at some of the key features mentioned in the management plan. We spotted a spring bubbling on the corner of the temporary pond, admired the variety of brown mosses in seepage zones and along pool edges and found some Common Stonewort in the Horseshoe Pond. We also found rosettes of one of the locally rare hawkweeds in dry, open-structured vegetation at the western end of the site, growing close to mats of Mouse-eared Hawkweed.
A fine example of Bleach Cup Disciotis venosa was present in the south-west corner of the quarry. Its common name comes from a distinctive bleach-like odour which is released when the fruit bodies are broken or crushed. I photographed this in the same area last April, so its clearly established at the site.