Ooops!

Ok, so it's been a while, I must have been busy!  Well, I have I guess.  I did eventually manage to get a plant survey done on the hill.  Really quite interesting actually, but will be going back to look again as spring brings in more variety and developments.  I've also been working really hard on finding out about badgers, and how much of a problem they are going to be with fencing etc.  The amount of paths they have crisscrossing the hill is incredible, and I don't want to be installing a hundred badger gates.  Also the fencing near the main sett needs replacing so I needed to find out about legalities of digging near setts.  Apparently, if you are caught near a badger sett with spade you are assumed to be badger digging and will be prosecuted as such!  Licences to carry outs works near badger setts are recommended!


Aside from that, we have started work on our practical project at uni.  We have a footpath to restore.  A lot of clearance work, the replacement of four gates and a footbridge to rebuild!  It's a great project, but after all the rain we've had the site is an absolute quagmire!  Yesterday, even though it wasn't raining, I wore waterproofs for mud limitation, I was still filthy and had condensation all up inside them! Not very pleasant.  Tomorrow, we are back on site and the weather is meant to be sunny and fairly warm, so I'm going to go with spare trousers instead!  No photos yet, I'll do a before and after of the entire project when we've finished.

Instead, here's a new fungus for me that I found at the footpath site during a break.  It's an Earthfan, a member of the Thelephora species. I've not found one before, so nice find for me. Sorry, second picture is a little blurry!