Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria 9 November 2016 Sunlight on winter woods. The first snowfall transforms the landscape, stirs memory. Flocks of barnacle geese are come to the Solway Firth from Svalbard. One summer, I watched an Arctic fox picking off goslings one by one to feed her cubs, caching them in the snow. The Solway at the onset of winter hosts geese from the North. I love this northern resonance. There’s expectation, a seasonal pattern with weather in the mix. And coincidence. What would the day bring?
We scan the fields for flocks of geese, pink-footed geese, white-fronted geese from Greenland en route for the wetlands of southern Ireland and Wexford. At Mereshead, we hope for barnacle geese from Svalbard. ‘The winter-spirits of the place,’ so the writer Adam Nicolson sees the barnacle geese of the Shiant Islands. His lineage breeds in Greenland and overwinters in the Hebrides, a distinct population. We scan the grassy fields, listening for their approach, inferring species from flight pattern, from call and from migration route.
Barnacle geese grazing in Mereshead pastures
The din of a helicopter frights the grazing barnacle geese and the flock takes wing, a dark shiver above the trees until silence falls and they settle once again in the pastures. Seldom-seen barnacle geese, unless you frequent the Arctic Circle and Solway. Beautiful and inspired with the spirit of Northern solitudes, with Arctic fox, ice bear and walrus, sea-cliffs with guillemot and razorbill, thousands of kittiwake feeding where waterfalls cascade from ice- cliffs to mingle with salt water. We watch the barnacles, half-hidden by hedgerows alive with small birds, with yellowhammer and reed bunting.
Lichens and silhouette of goldcrest
Conditions have to be just so for fly agaric to appear, that iconic mushroom of fairy story and folk lore. Below a fringe of pine trees the fruit bodies show, the tip of a fungal iceberg. The mycelium is always present, fine filaments clustering thick about the root- hairs of birch and pine in symbiotic relationship. Fly agaric, a fungus of the Northern hemisphere in the red and white garb of Father Christmas. The woodland trees are draped in lichens to feast his reindeer before their flight through the clouds. Taste fly agaric and you may fly with the reindeer, the fungus has psychoactive compounds, mind-expanding properties. In Wonderland, Alice nibbled - with startling effect. * Goldcrests amongst the trees, six tiny birds in silhouette.
Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria
‘What was the highlight of the day?’ asked Ken, our leader. An elusive and shifting enchantment. A certain quality of light. Sunlight on snow. Barnacle geese. A hedgerow glowing with yellowhammer. At Mereshead, as the light faded , a hen harrier flying low over the deep and rich colours of the saltmarsh. Before leaving the Solway solitudes, with the light fading, we took tea and cake in the cafe. Companionship and shared experience was a good part of it too.
Thanks to Ken, Judy and Alastair for running an excellent Bristol Ornithological Club trip to Lancashire and the Solway Coast.
I look forward to seeing Chris Teague’s images from the trip which you may see on his web diary
www.chriswebdiary.co.uk
Radio 4. 15 November 2016.
The Life Scientific. Lynne Boddy on Fungi
* Natural Histories . Fly Agaric with Brett Westwood ( For the psychoactive effects of fly agaric you must first drink urine. Brett Westwood explains the alchemy. )
Two poems resonating around the origins of Father Christmas and fly agaric.
The Night Before Christmas ( the visit of Saint Nicholas) Professor Clement Clarke Moore 1823)
Trance Paul Muldoon
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