As part of their evening's entertainment on November 5th, Phil was in the captain's seat to demonstrate the lowering of Concorde's nose etc in front of a very big crowd. All went well with the heat shield, nose lowering etc as the plane made its imaginary c. 2 hour journey from London to New York.
This is the first time (?recently) that Duxford IWM have run a firework evening so I am sure there were some nerves out there on the runway as they lit the first one but all went to plan with the customary big bang finale.
Lichens photographed in the Sanctuary at Paxton Pits, an area not open to the public right by the water and with lots of old hawthorns (and oaks) - ideal for lichen and fungal growth. Generally taken with a bit too slow shutterspeed for the amount of magnification so will repeat at some stage. IDs at end
Yesterday we decided to check on the fungi in East Scrub, a protected part of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve that we have worked on to encourage low scrub for breeding birds but it has also created a good habitat for toadtools with lots of dead wood, damp conditions and variable light. Here a few images of the different species and a sheet with ID.
The thick mist at Toft had cleared a bit by the time I got to Paxton Pits this morning but the Pits still looked very atmospheric. Great to see signs that the next breeding season is not that far off - two Great Crested Grebes are obviously a 'couple', a Heron perched on the branch next to this year's nest site and some of the Cormorants are adding a brilliant orange to the yellow facial marking indicating that the are starting to come into breeding state. Grey Wagtail reflected colours together with the Robin made great photographic subjects along with the White Egret and the dew drops in the spiders' webs.
