DAILY DIARY

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This morning I cycled through the Denvilles area of Havant delivering Christmas Cards, passing a spectacular display of Honey fungus which had turned jet black presumably as a result of frost (yet another factor to take into account when identifying fungi!). Continuing to Emsworth, then heading south to the western shore, the only thing of interest was a brief glimpse of a Sparrowhawk heading east high over the houses near Glenwood School between which I saw it for a couple of seconds after being alerted to its presence by the alarm calls of Starlings.

Nearing the shore I turned off Warblington Road to cut through Beacon Square but kept my eyes open for fungi in the grass verge of the short section of road (called Seafields) connecting Warblington Road to Beacon Square, and in the grass on the west side I found this fairly large fungus (photo below) which I am fairly sure is Leccinum crocipodium called the Yellow-cracking Bolete in Roger Phillips book but named the Saffron Bolete in the 'new english names' promoted by the British Mycological Society - the cap was around 12cm across but as there was only one specimen I did not uproot it for further investigation though I did get down on the ground to check that the stem and pores matched those of the Saffron Bolete. For a photo of this fungus see http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/loadimage.asp?did=9114&blockName=Leccinum crocipodium My own photo is below

With the tide high there were few shore birds in the Nore Barn area but at the far (western) end of the wood I stopped by a well used path into the stubble field north of the wood in order to photograph this magnificent specimen of a Prickly Sowthistle, one of three or four standing over a metre high and enjoying the enriched soil with virtually no competition from other plants now the cereal crop has been harvested.

Back at home my single bird feeder had attracted four Chaffinches, three Greenfinch, two Long-tailed Tits and singles of Dunnock, Wren, Robin and Blue Tit. I have not heard the local Song Thrush recently but one Wood Pigeon was singing this morning and while out I heard a Great Tit.

A walk round Havant this morning gave me just one flower worth reporting - a single fresh Lesser Celandine flowering at the junction of New Lane and Eastern Road.

Yesterday brought two visits to my garden from substantial Tit flocks accompanied on one visit by half a dozen Chaffinches which gathered on the ground under a seed feeder being visited by Tits.

Yesterday evening I watched the fascinating BBC 4 programme on the decay of living material and the way it is taken up in new life. For me the most memorable part was the section on Slime Moulds which gave me a whole new view on what they are and how they work - well worth watching on the BBC Iplayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012w66t I had previously understood that Slime Moulds were the result of many single cells coming together to form various parts of a more complex organism but this programme showed them as a single cell - the largest among all living things - which demonstrated the functions of an apparently intelligent ability to hunt for its food without having any normal means of locomotion, no organs for eating and digesting its food, and no brain to co-ordinate its actions. Its powers were vividly demonstrated by placing pieces of slime mould on computer chips in a Dalek-like machine and showing how the elctrical impulses from the Slime Mould could energize the computer chips to drive the wheeled machine in a search for food. The section on Slime Moulds came towards the end of the programme so you may wish to 'fast forward' through the earlier sections.

This morning I drove to Broadmarsh and walked around Farlington Marshes where single Fieldfare and Redwing were unexpected and a single Peregrine was a bonus. I also enjoyed a couple of Stonechats and several Pintail but saw neither Avocets nor Short-eared Owls.

I did better with flowering plants along the cycleway (where I also noticed the leaves of several orchids - probably both Bee and Pyramidal) but the biggest surprise came on returning to the carpark where a cluster of Bur Chervil plants were in full flower - pictures below. These were all the more surprising as I only saw them flowering on the south Hayling Sinah area on one visit in April.

The 40 plant species I saw in flower included White Melilot, Common Fleabane, Teazel, Stone Parsley, Blue Fleabane and Perforate St John's Wort.

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This morning the forecast of a clear blue sky was correct as I set out to walk along the shore to Nore Barn at Emsworth via Langstone. To get a few more plants on my December list I started out through Juniper Square where I found the expected Yellow Flowered Strawberry and Small Flowered Cranesbill but had an unexpected bonus in the shape of two or three fresh young plants of Field Pennycress and one garden escape plant of Cyperus eragrostis which Stace calls Pale Galingale but the Fitters call American Galingale.

The Lymbourne stream alongside the Wade Court Chinese Water Garden had its regular Grey Wagtail and the banks of the stream had flowers on the Dewberry version of bramble while, just before turning off the Billy Line to cross Russell's Field to Langstone, I confirmed that the Japanese Honeysuckle was still flowering.

Reaching the point on the shoreline where the official path turns inland to go past Warblington church I stopped to scan the expanse of mud exposed at the bottom of the tide and now covered with a full winter show of birds including some 20 Knot and hundreds of Bar-tailed Godwit lining the distant water's edge (a group of them proved their identity by taking to the wing and flyng past me). Even further out on the small area of remaining water were 8 diving ducks which must have been Mergansers. Before moving on I looked inland and watched a Fox exploring the western hedge of Warblington cemetery.

After rounding Conigar Point I had a look in the farm field from which most of the wild flowers have vanished but their interest was replaced by a flock of around 600 Brent feeding on the two fields between Conigar Point and the Church Path. While I was there something disturbed them and the great mass of geese rose into the air - at least 200 came down into the shore field in front of me.

At the 'corner' of the farm where you turn north to Nore Barn wood four Reed Buntings took flight and headed towards Thorney Island but changed their mind to return to the field hedge, giving me good views of them and at least one fresh Dog Rose flower.

At the 'Maisemore Gardens' stream there was no Spotted Redshank but I did enjoy the sight of two male Pintail on the mud, and as I turned to start the walk home along the north side of the wood I noticed a large number of House Sparrows active in the mass of Ivy which now totally covers the remains of the Nore Barn building. A little further along the path the first of two Dunnocks burst into song though they still sing only occasionally, unlike the Song Thrushes which can now be heard daily. Nearing the west end of the wood I was impressed by a circular tower of greenery arising vertically from the stubble of the field north of the wood - this turned out to be an over-enthusiatic plant of what I (and Stace!) call Prickly Sow-thistle but I see that the Fitters call Rough Sow-thistle!

Here, where a broad opening into the wood normally has a broad carpet of Sweet Violets (none today) I turned into the wood to see if there might be any flowers on the patch of what I think of as the intermediate coloured violets that (in spring) have flowers half way between the Violet at the north of the wood and the few remaining Pink ones at the south. I did not find Violets but did tick Butchers Broom flowers and then, emerging from the wood by the first available path near its south west corner, I added to my knowledge of the plants in this wood by finding Japanese Honeysuckle flowering entwined among the brambles growing along the woodland edge. I may have seen the flowers here before and ignored them as just Honeysuckle but at this time of year the Japanese species is more likely to be flowering and its identity can be confirmed by the fact that the flowers of our native species grow in a single terminal whorl at the end of strand whereas those of the Japanese species grow in pairs from the axils of opposite leaves before the end of the strand,

Walking back across the large field which has the Church Path along its southern edge I found one luxuriant growth of Dwarf Spurge and many plants of both Sharp and Round-leaved Fluellen, many with unopen flower buds but one showing yellow from its partially open flowers.

Beyond the Church, as I rounded the corner of the 'Black Barn' to head north on Church Lane, I came on the first of four tall freshly flowering plants of Cow Parsley, the last items to go on my note pad.

My first destination was Portchester Common where there was a good show of small yellowish fungi growing from dung - this is Bolbitius vittelinus or the Yellow Fieldcap and deserved a couple of photos.

Heading downhill to the area close to the Paulsgrove estate I was surprised to find one plant of Ploughman's Spikenard in flower but not looking very photogenic so I did not get my camera out again until I came on this Musk Thistle in full flower.

On the climb up to the area above the Paulsgrove chalkpit I passed a small group of Holly Trees covered in berries and sheltering a big patch of Butcher's Broom with their attractive 'passion flowers' but I did not get the camera out again until I came on several patches of young and colourful Sulphur Tuft fungi.

The final section of my walk was alongside the road below Fort Southwick where two small roundabouts slow the traffic coming and going to the Driving Test site and here, to my surprise, I found a cluster of unexpected wild flowers. By the eastern of the two roundabouts Old Man's Beard (or Travellers Joy) had fresh flowers, as did Tansy and Ox-eye Daisies and in the roadside grass was a cluster of Field Blewitt fungi.

By the western roundabout I found Musk Mallow and Round Leaved Cranesbill while just beyond it several flowering plants of Field Forget-me-not were poking through wire mesh fencing and not photogenic

With blue sky promised for the whole morning I set out to enjoy a long cycle ride via north Emsworth, Stansted House and the Ems valley, returning via Aldsworth Pond, Westbourne and Brook Meadow at Emsworth. When the sun did shine the views of green fields in the Ems valley from Walderton south to Racton were magnificent but for much of the time clouds and few raindrops were the order of the day and my notepad remained empty. Probably the most interesting species seen was a single example of Hard Fern (which likes acid soils and so is not common in the coastal area around Havant) in Southleigh Forest and the most striking was a very dead and decomposed young Deer lying in the road from Aldsworth to Westbourne. I did see several fungi, but nothing new, and the best in the way of bird life was Coal Tit and Stock Dove song and the only notable flowering plants were Wavy Bittercress and Wood Avens!

Back in Havant when shopping after lunch I did better by walking down a narrow alley between brick walls and seeing what I think was an escaped French Cranesbill (Geraniun endressii) flowering atop one of the walls (where it definitely was not planted!)

Best of all was a new Waxcap Fungus which had appeared overnight on my garden lawn - a Meadow Waxcap of which a photo appears below though the photo makes the cap appear pale where to the naked eye it was a pretty shade of pink measuring 5 cm across and standing 3 cm high

Settling down indoors I found I had an email from Dr Stuart Skeates of the Hampshire Fungus Recording Group giving the true identity of the 'potential Death Caps' that I have written about in my last two entries and, by implication, pointing out that I had committed the common error of those amatuers who jump to conclusions by saying 'this specimen looks like that one, therefore they are the same'. I full agree with Dr. Skeates conclusion that the species found at the Chichester Lakes by Brian Fellows was Amanita vaginata (Grisette) whereas the one found by myself on Budds Mound was a young example of the Stubble Rosegill (now called Volvariella gloiocephala but appearing in old books as V. speciosa)

This morning I walked down the Langbrook stream and across the South Moors before returning along the shore to Langstone to come home via Wade Lane, noting 69 plant species in flower plus a few good birds and several fungi, amongst them being two fresh specimens of the species seen at Chichester last week which I still think may be closely related to Death Caps.

More of the fungi below but first the plants among which were Small-flowered Cranesbill, Yellow Iris and fresh Meadow Sweet plus a new patch of Small Nettle among the Common Fumitory around the new carpark on Budds Mound, Common Vetch and Dog Roses along the South Moors shore and Sweet Violets along Mill Lane at Langstone where the leaves of the Hairy Garlic which I 'discovered' last year caught my eye and proved their identity when I got out my hand lens and saw the hairs protruding from the edges of the leaves. Later, passing Wade Court, I confirmed Brian Fellows recent observation that the fruits (arils) of the Japanese Spindle were beginning to burst out of their 'shells' and show their bright orange colour.

Little of note among the birds but I was surprised when, at the Budds Farm pools, I had great difficulty in spotting just one Coot - where have they all gone? High over the Moors a single Snipe was seen in flight and a single Rock Pipit was heard and seen on the shore. Best bird came when I was nearly home and passing the Lymbourne Stream watercress beds (well hidden in a private garden just north of the A27) - from the sky came the clear call of a Green Sandpiper flying over reminding me that one of these birds is likely to spend some of his time in those watercress beds during the winter.

Coming to the fungi I started off with a nice fresh cluster of Honey Fungus on a stump by the Langbrook stream before reaching the old rubbish tip mound above the Budds Farm pools where I noted Weeping Widows and Shaggy Inkcaps but the main find here was of two fresh specimens of what I feel sure is the same 'Amanita type' toadstool that Brian Fellows found at Chichester a week ago. I brought home one example to be measured, dissected and photographed - hopefully, with these details, I may get an opinion on the identity of the species and its status as a 'death bringer' from the Hampshire Fungus Recording Group.

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Correction re entry for Nov 25 - at the end of that entry I said that I saw Venus (or maybe Jupiter) in the eastern sky - it was of course Jupiter that I saw. As Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth Venus can only be seen in the western sky at sunset (work it out for yourself as I have now done!)

When Brian Fellows was at the Chichester Gravel Pit lakes on Nov 21 he took a photo of a fungus which he could not name and put it in his website diary ( http://www.emsworthwildlife.hampshire.org.uk/0-0-0-wildlife-diary.htm ) entry for Nov 21. The whitish 'stuff' on the top of the cap suggested to me that the fungus had been enclosed in a 'universal veil' when it emerged from the ground, leaving remnants of it on the cap when the fungus grew and split the veil (that is how the Fly Agaric gets the distinctive white flecking on its otherwise red/orange cap). This morning I went to Chichester and found a couple of old specimens of the fungus Brian had seen and I include my own photos of these below showing clearly the remains of the veil on the cap and possible remains of the bottom of the universal veil enclosing the base of the stem. This basal part is called a Volva and normally has the appearance of an 'open topped bag' with a gap between it and the fungus stem coming up from the centre of the bag but this is not always the case as I found out from the excellent Collins New Generation Guide to Fungi by Stefan Buczacki, almost half of which is devoted to background info about fungi. Stefan says (page 34) there are two types of volva - the open bag type which are named 'free' and an 'adherent' type which adheres to the stem and appear (as with the remnants of the veil on the cap) as 'lumps' sticking to the stem base and my photos show this form is present on the stems of my samples. Further, by bringing the samples home I found that the spore print is white, making it likely that the fungus is an Amanita species.

Pictures of a Death Cap at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides show some similarities to my samples (the size of which is within the lower limit of measurements for Death Cap) but indicate a 'free' volva so my current thinking is that the fungi which Brian found are probably an Amanita species or variant (and above all should not be eaten even though it is not a Death Cap!). There are some 600 Amanita species worldwide and Amanita frostiana (an American species) does have an adherent volva (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_frostiana ). One factor against Amanita is the total absence of a stem ring on the samples from Chichester.

While at Chichester I had a look at all dozen or more lakes seeing many Gulls (Black-headed, Herring and Common), Mute Swans, Coots, Cormorants, Great Crested Grebes, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Pochard and Gadwall with a few Wigeon and Canada Geese plus Moorhens on the water but the surprise among the waterfowl came at the end when, after passing the road into the caravan site, I had a look at Leythorne Lake which can be seen from a very narrow path running along the northern fence of the caravan site - among a good many other waterfowl was a single male Scaup exactly where I had seen it on Jan 3 this year - maybe it is a plastic resident here but it looks genuine enough and I have posted an entry on the Sussex Ornithological Soc website it the hope that some knowledgeable birder will let us know its status.

On my way back from the Scaup I kept my eye open for flowering plants and beside one of the miscellaneous buildings between Runcton and New Lakes a strip of soil (hardly a flower bed) was full of Round-leaved Cranesbill in flower. This plant is listed as rare in the Hants Flora but I think it is one that is nowadays fairly widespread - I have included a photo of a branch which I brought back with me and it shows two of the diagnostics, first that the petals have smooth round tips with no indent at the tip and second that the plant is very hairy all over. Looking just at the flower pedicels the abundant glandular hairs, all of an even length, could mislead you into thinking this was an unusually large Small-flowered Cranesbill but that has flowers half the size of the Round-leaved and they are mauvish in colour (not pink) and the petals are 'retuse' at their tips (i.e. have a 'shallow blunt notch'). In checking this id with Stace I noticed that he divides the Cranesbill tribe into two sections (Geranium, which includes Round-leaved and Robertium which includes Small-flowered - one of the distinguishing features between them is that the petals of Geranium species are joined to the flowerhead by a 'claw' - a continuation of the main 'blade' of the petal which is narrower than the blade which is visible without taking the flower to pieces) The petals of Round-leaved do not have a claw.

Back in the Ivy Lake area I heard calls of Bullfinch and a strident altercation between two Water Rails making their 'Pick, pick' calls and then found a single plant of Hedge Parsley (Torilis japonica) which normally flowers in July and I have included a photo to show that it is the weather and not me that is out to deceive you!

Here are my photos of the Amanita type fungus plus those of the Hedge Parsley and the Round-leaved Cranesbill ...

Back at home the weather continued fair and the tides were right for a count of Egrets coming to roost at Langstone Pond so I cycled down there a little before sunset. With most of the leaves off the roost trees I could be pretty sure no Egrets had arrived before me and I had to wait until seven minutes after sunset before the first arrived. I ceased counting 45 minutes after sunset with just under 50 birds in the trees but while waiting for them to arrive I had two other surprises which contributed to the slight inaccuracy of the count. The first was the undoubted presence of a Water Rail, announced by its loud blood curdling call (said to resemble the noise of a Pig having its throat slit), the second was the sight of what I think was a Water Vole swimming across an open area of water no more than three metres in front of me. Although it was dark by this time the patch of water was fairly well lit by the afterglow of the sunset and I could clearly see the shape of the swimming animal and am sure it had the 'square ended' shape and size of a Vole and did not have the tail which a Rat would have shown trailing behind it but as I stepped forward to get a better view the animal immediately disappeared below the water without even leaving a ripple to show where it had been. I know Rats can swim well both above and below water and have seen videos of them doing so (in one the tail was clearly visible on the surface before the Rat dived). I also know that Rats frequent Langstone Pond to enjoy the bread thrown to the ducks, and I have never heard of definite sightings of Water Voles there so my sighting must not be taken as proof that they are resident there or in the Lymbourne stream which feeds the pond and which has suitable banks for their burrows but it may be worth keeping an eye open for further signs of their presence.

A final bonus as I turned away from the pond to set off home was to see the very bright sight of what I thought to be Venus (though it might have been Jupiter) in the centre of an otherwise totally black eastern sky looking towards Thorney Island.

Among the birds were many Wigeon, Teal and Shelduck with around 20 each of Pintail and Shoveler as well as the Brent and Canada Geese (among the latter was a leucistic bird which was the size of the Canadas but had yellowish legs and a pinkish bill so probably had some Greylag parentage). At the Lake were seven Avocets plus many Blacktailed Godwits with Redshanks, three Greenshank, Lapwing and Dunlin - while there a Kingfisher flew by and later, among the tidal rubbish at the foot of the southern seawall was one Rock Pipit. Over on the RSPB Islands were many Oystercatchers and Grey Plover with Cormorants and some Mergansers in the water of Russell's Lake. The Deeps had a good show of Pintail and while there a small flock of what I think were Linnets flew over and a single Meadow Pipit landed on the fence above which a single Kestrel had been hovering. On the way back just three Great Crested Grebes were in Chalkdock Lake.

Most of the plants seen in flower were beside the cycle way and included a single Goatsbeard and a couple of Common Flax flowers and several freshly flowering Teazles as well as the more expected Chinese Mugwort, Yellowwort and Blue Fleabane plus the first Winter Heliotrope flowerhead among the leaves there. The majority of the unexpected flowers were seen where the cycleway runs alongside the main road (generating the extra heat and gases which come from the cars and benefit the plants) and included Fleabane, White Melilot, White Campion, Ox-eye Daisy, and a mass of Black Medick and Storksbill. One find within the reserve was a cluster of fresh plants of Stone Parsley, one covered with flowers and others too fresh leaved to have thought about flowering yet.

In the grass of the Marshes were many large Mushrooms (probably Horse) and at one point I found a couple of what looked just like False Chanterelles (but both they and the genuine delicacy Chanterelle normally grow with conifers, not in open grassland). Another odd sight when walking by the stream was to see a Fox pop out of one side of a bramble clump as a Rabbit emerged from the other side.

Yesterday I cycled to the Oysterbeds and found two flowers of Pale Flax still out, then found the Summer Snowflake in flower outside the West Mill in Langstone Mill Lane (I see John Goodspeed had seen this in flower on Monday of this week). I have noted the first flowering of this plant each year since 2006 and the range of dates over these six years has been from Feb 16 to Mar 20 until this year's climate has brought it into flower three months early in November.

Another exceptional flowering this week was seen on Monday (Nov 21) when I found a fresh plant of Narrow-leaved Pepperwort in flower beside the Langstone Roundabout where I first noticed it in flower on May 2, then saw it re-flowering on Aug 22 and now find it out again. Also on Nov 21 a mass re-flowering of Sweet Violets could be seen in St Faith's church yard in Havant

(Link to previous day’s entry)

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When I cycled round Hayling Island last Tuesday (Nov 15) and found what I thought was Twiggy Mullein (Verbascum virgatum) I did not have my camera with me and today, despite lack of sunshine in the afternoon, I cycled back to North Common to take a couple of pictures to back up my claim to the identity of the plant. Luckily it was still there but an erratic breeze put my attempts at close-up photos out of focus (and, inexcusably, the pictures taken in my own home of a single flower that I brought back are also out of focus).

The leading shoot of the plant had been broken off some time ago so I can only guess that its full height would have been around one metre. When I found it there were four lower flowering shoots and I convinced myself that several of the lower flowers grew in pairs although I can find no clear photographic evidence of this. All the other requirements of Stace's key for this to be Twiggy Mulein should be discernible in the photos despite the poor focus - the flower pedicels are much shorter than those of the Moth Mullein (also found by me on Tuesday on south Hayling and at two Sussex sites earlier this summer) and the calyx is liberally covered with stalked glandular hairs. I see that one of the three upper anthers has fallen off its filament but the way in which the remaining two are located on their filaments is as would be expected.

I have a personal interest in the identity of this plant as it is growing very close to where I found a similar Mullein in September 2007 and I was told that that one was not Twiggy Mullein but (after being referred up to the national Verbascum expert, Vic Johnstone,) that it seemed to be a species new to western Europe and named in a Turkish Flora as Verbascum macrocarpum. It seems that seeds taken from that plant did not germinate as I have heard no more of attempts to grow them in order to establish the plant's true identity so I am hoping that this one really is Twiggy Mullein to claim the lesser honour of having a known and not uncommon species on my 'Life List'. (Though listed as very rare in the Hampshire flora - with a note that its last known site on south Hayling was destroyed by building work in 1984 - the plant is not a national rarity).

Another point of interest is that the South Hayling location of the Twiggy Mullein which existed up to 1984 is given in the Hants Flora as Seager House in the 1Km map square SZ 7098 and as this square only has buildings in its extreme north east corner (and I find through an online search of photos held by the Hampshire Museums Service that Seager House was a School on a plot at around SZ 710 990) this area must be some sort of botanic hotspot as, to my own knowledge, the famous Childing Pink (later re-identified as Proliferous Pink) plants were found here as a direct result of my finding Amsinckia micrantha (Common Fiddleneck) here - the Pink's were discovered by Eric Clement and Debbie Allan who had come to check out the Amsinckia at my request - and since then the large colony of Cock's Eggs (Salpichroa organifolia) has been found close by. All these plants may well be within the original boundaries of the Seager House School.

This morning I cycled to Nutbourne and found 17 Avocets (one count seemed to give me 19 but I could not repeat it) among a great variety of other species including a Peregrine which flew over but made no attempt to hunt.

While there I found a few flowers still left on the Narrow-leaved Ragwort but could not find any on the Water Chickweed at Prinsted Bay (plenty left on the Shaggy Soldier at the 'market garden plot')

Next target was the Cattle Egret on the Thornham Marshes but managed to miss it again at the fourth attempt. The cattle were once more in the field beside the main road leading to the army base. The little deeps were also devoid of any bird interest and so was the Nore Barn stream!

The sunshine did give me another Red Admiral in my garden where the Song Thrush was again singing volubly and while out I also heard Wren, Collared Dove and Cetti's Warbler

Today I drove to the top of Portsdown and parked between the Churchillian pub and Fort Widley before walking an anti-clockwise circuit of that central section of the south face of the hill. The objective was to see for myself the Alexanders plants which Brian Fellows had discovered flowering incredibly early (they normally flower in late March or early April) on Nov 11.

Leaving the Alexanders till near the end of my walk I set out round the back of Fort Wildey where a pair of Yellowhammers provided the interest. Crossing the Hilltop Road to the south face of the hill I soon found Greater Knapweed and Black Medick in flower plus some Tansy (its poor showing made up for by bright red Common Poppies) but I failed to find any Common Gromwell (in the past I have found young plants flowering in the autumn rather than waiting for next spring). One surprise on the southern slope was to find several plants of Yellow-wort still out as well as the inevitable Small Scabious.

Eventually reaching the London Road below the Cliffdale Caravan Park I began to trudge upill on the pavement passing, as expected, many young leaves of Alexanders and then finding six full grown plants of it in flower just where I had expected them, right outside the Caravan Park on the uphill side of its entrance.

The impression of spring induced by these flowers made me double check the Rookery within the park in case the birds had also been deceived by the weather and were already nesting! I could see no sign of that but when I reached the 'Candy Pits' area, where you can leave the pavement and head in through the old chalk pits to climb the steps that bring you out near the view point carpark, I disturbed a large bird which must have been a Buzzard but gave me the distinct impession by its half-seen size and plumage that it was an Eagle.

On one of the tree stumps in the pits there was a good show of Candle-snuff fungus and in this area I found two new flowering plants - more Winter Heliotrope flowering on the steps up to the hilltop, and where I stopped to admire the Alexanders I found Spotted Medick at my feet.

After lunch I made a brief cycle ride in Havant in the hope of adding another unseasonal flower to my plant list - in several past winters I have found Hawthorn flowering in the winter in a line of scrubby trees following the huge pipes that divert winter flood water from the 'winter bourne' stream coming down from the Idsworth/Rowlands Castle area though the West Leigh area, reducing the chance of flooding in central Havant by sending it into the Hermitage Stream at Stockheath (in Leigh Park). These pipes can be found close to the first bridge over the Hermitage Stream upstream of Barncroft Way (the flowers appear less than 100 metres from the stream, adjacent to the place where the streamside path goes under the pipes) and when I arrived there today I saw the Hawthorns had been very roughly trimmed and it seemed unlikely that any flowers remained but a close search found just three!

The nearby bridge over the stream gave me a substantial bonus as, looking downstream with my binoculars, I saw a Green Sandpiper standing motionless in the shallow water (one or more of these birds are here each winter but not always so easily seen!). As an extra reward a Grey Wagtail flew down into the stream while I was watching the Sandpiper.

The reason for choosing Hayling as a destination was the hope of seeing the extremely early Lesser Celandines which I had been told were flowering in the ditch beside Bound Lane and with them in mind my first stop was at the Lymbourne stream just south of the Havant bypass - although there were no flower buds to be seen the leaves of two or three plants were well grown and I will keep an eye on them from now on.

Continuing down the Billy Trail my next surprise was a burst of Dunnock song from one of the trackside gardens, confirming that their song period has started here, as - according to Cliff Dean's entry for yesterday in his 'Birding Walks in RXLand' blog - it has now started in the Rye Bay area where the RX registration lettters on the fishing boats give the Rye Harbour nature reserve website and Cliff's Blog their 'RX' tag. I did not hear more Dunnocks today but must have heard half a dozen Song Thrushes, a couple of Wrens, and a miscellaneous collection of Blue and Great Tits plus the inevitable Starlings though strangely no Wood Pigeons or Collared Doves.

Reaching the shoreline I took advantage of the new wooden seat overlooking the mouth of the Brockhampton stream to check out the birds which included a couple of Turnstones and three Great Crested Grebes among the Brent and Wigeon. While here I started what became a substantial list of fungi with a single 'Lawyer's Wig' (Shaggy Inkcap) and among the plants here I found leaves of English Scurvygrass looking as if they were about to start flowering (normally that happens at the end of March but I am not sure if the leaves do sometimes show in winter).

The first surprise on Hayling was to find Pale Flax still in flower beside the track where it passes the Riding Stables just south of Stoke Bay and on reaching the big West Lane fields I was not so surprised to find a vast flock of Brent feeding on the young cereals but the last shore field on the west side of the track had a different surprise - a vast crop of Rosy Stubblegill fungi (which I still call Volvariella speciosa)

Nothing more until I reached Ferry Road at its junction with St Catherine's Road where a nice fresh plant of flowering Cow Parsley was followed (not far further west, immediately after passing the Golf Club entrance road) by the sight of the Moth Mullein still bearing its yellow flowers

No great excitement at the Sinah Gravel Pit though I did see the first butterfly of the day (probably a Red Admiral) flying above the tree tops and on the ground below found my first troop of Clouded Agaric fungi.

After the Gunner Point area came the highspot of the day as I was nearing the approach road to the Inn on the Beach - a small dark long-tailed bird flew across the track a few feet in front of my bike and settled on the tip of a gorse bush to take a good look at me from a distance of no more that two metres - giving me in turn a clear, sunlit view of an adult Dartford Warbler. This was just before the Gorse which had Dodder on it back in July and which still today has some Pale Toadflax flowering below it. Not far further east the Cocks Eggs were still in flower and before reaching the Beachlands Offices I watched a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (the first I have seen since June) visiting Red Valerian flowers. Continuing east along the Seafront Road I added Annual Wall Rocket to my flower list

Turning up Bound Lane I found the glorious Lesser Celandine flowers, about a dozen of them, in the shallow ditch on the west side of the lane between houses 12 and 14, and as a bonus I noticed the first White Comfrey flowers I have seen this autumn in a garden on the opposite side of the lane a little further north (these may have been planted but I confidently expect to see garden escapes flowering very soon.

Nothing more more noted until I reached St Peter's Road approaching Northney from the south - here I stopped for a look at a large Brent Flock out in the vast north Hayling Fields and as I did so I realised that, under fallen leaves in the roadside at my feet , were several large Fleecy Milkcap fungi. Next came Northney Church where the Strawberry Tree had many fresh white flowers. At the other side of the village I went into North Common where the first thing I noticed were many clusters of tiny Fairies Bonnets fungi (Coprinus disseminatus - now just called Fairy Inkcap) but the second thing that caught my eye was much more exciting - another yellow flowered Mullein but almost certainly a different species from the Moth Mullein seen near the Hayling Golf course entrance. I am hesitant to suggest a name for it as I found a yellow flowered Mullein with violet stamen hairs growing in this same area a few years ago and these were referred to the UK Mullein expert who initially said that it did not match any species which he knew of, but he later said he had found a matching description in a Turkish Flora and concluded these plants were new to Europe! Today's plant seems to have a good chance of being Verbascum virgatum (Twiggy Mullein) and I have found a couple of photos of that on the internet which seem to match the flowers and leaves of the plant I saw. See http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0011/81695/Verbascum_virgatum_flower_620.JPG for the flowers (in particular I noted that some of the lower flowers were in pairs and Stace uses this as a criticical distinction between Twiggy and Moth Mullein (the latter always having single flowers). For the leaves see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Verbascum_virgatum_leaves.jpg - visually this is a good match for the leaves I saw which measured 7 cm long - the flowers I measured as 25mm across, maybe slightly small for Twiggy?

While still at North Common I had two more good finds - a single Sweet Violet flower and a single Speckled Wood butterfly. Nothing more noted on the way home for a late lunch.

My latest weekly summary of reports is now available by clicking Weekly Summary here

My latest weekly summary of reports is now available by clicking Weekly Summary here

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