Hardwick Wood Coppicing etc

 Any Saturday through the winter months that I am free, I join a conservation party in Hardwick Wood to do a bit of coppicing (contact for details of Saturday and Sunday work parties in Cambridge area info@ccv.org.uk). I first started coppicing in 1962 at Hayley Wood so have had a bit of practise over the years. I walk up and back from the wood - about a 3 mile round trip so plenty of exercise. Coppicing is a traditional woodland management technique that dates back to the Stone Age involving cutting branches at their base to create a ‘stool’ where new shoots will grow - best suited to hazel, but can be applied to sweet chestnut, ash and lime. The original use of coppicing is still maintained in Hardwick  producing firewood and long straight poles for fencing, building and in the garden as bean poles. Coppicing is also thought to improve the biodiversity of a woodland area by opening it up to the sunlight and allowing a wider range of plants to grow. 

Here some images on my walk (including a distant Addenbrookes site!!), of the coppicing area at the start of the process and of the ancient woodland areas (with hundreds of Ash seedlings (reaction to Ash die-back?).  The tall single hazel shoots in the image will be laid into adjacent bare areas to sprout and fill the gaps in the hazel regrowth). 

Cups and Caps at Paxton

Still a lot of fungi around at Paxton Pits including several species of cups as well as traditional clumps of Mycena etc. The Scarlet Elf Caps, Sarcoscypha spp (S. austriaca is the commoner but indistiguishable in the field from S. coccinea) are just starting to fruit - this one with an unusually long stem to get above the moss but also Brown Cups (Rutstroemia firma),  Lemon Cups (Bisporella citrina) and the impressive Green Elfcup (Chlorociboria aeruginascens). The Coral Spot (Nectria cinnabarina) was on a lot of twigs.

Wimpole Fungi

Wimpole grounds were very 'damp' in the mist but thankfully not too muddy. Lots of fungi covered in dew, which gives interesting shots as in the first photo but makes ID difficult. I have managed to identify Calocera cornea, Small stagshorn (2), Helvella crispa, White Saddle (3), Auricularia mesenterica, Tripe Fungus (5,6), Auricularia auricula-judae, Jelly Ear (8), Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum King Alfred's Cakes - young stage (9) and Nostoc comune a Cyanobacterium (10)

Wimpole in the Mist

I took a damp misty walk round Wimpole Estate this morning - very atmospheric but difficult to photograph. I was surprised to find a primrose plant in full bloom in the midst of a lot of different fungi species (next post)

Hardwick Wood Minifungi etc

A few very small fungi (all under 2 cm) from a forage at Hardwick Wood this morning. All focus-stacked - some in-camera stacks, others processed in Zerene Stacker. I will add some IDs to the files when time to look them up!! I think the mycelium shot with transparent 'baubles' might be a Zygomycota like bread mould.