Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Yellow Brain Fungus in February

5/2/2017

0 Comments

 
PictureYellow brain fungus, Tremella mesentrica on gorse
Some five years ago I found yellow brain fungus on a dead branch at the heart of a gorse bush where linnet nest.  It was January, and a month later I returned to see the jelly fungus deliquescent and dripping down the branch, some lobes translucent white.  Each year I return to see how the fungus fares.  It is confined to a single branch at the heart of the bush and I find it on none of the surrounding gorse. Earlier in the morning, I returned to the ash by the trig point on Scout Scar but the ridge was in shadow so the fungus was hard to see.

Rain was in the air and inky cloud ran into the blue.  Sometimes a distant peak showed in sunlight, then shadow swept it up and consumed it. There was a misty magic, a volatility that eludes photography.  Once again, I'm drawn to that farmstead down in the Lyth Valley as it gleams in light and is lost to darkness.  The mood changes in a moment and somewhere I glimpse a story that slips away as the light fades.  It is beguiling.
By the Scout Scar trig point, I remembered the ash intertwined with holly where I'd found Tremella mesentrica a couple of weeks ago. There has been rain during the week and the fungus responds to hydration.  The ridge was gloomy and I could only see the fungus because I knew it was there.
Walking down the dip slope, I remembered the gorse where I've found it previously and went to look. The joy of yellow brain fungus is the bright splash of colour in January and February.  Wow! The dead wood flowers with beautiful petals of jelly.  I know this spot intimately. On the cover of Cumbrian Contrasts there's a beautiful photograph of a wheatear I took here. And of a juvenile cuckoo being fed by its tiny foster parent.  Last spring I took lovely photographs of linnet.  Soon, they'll return here to breed. So will the lesser redpoll. My mission this spring is to improve on my lesser redpoll images. There's a short window of opportunity, when the birds return and before the trees are in leaf.  Lesser redpoll are nervous birds and they don't pose for photographs, so I have to be canny.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a writer and naturalist living in Cumbria. She take photographs.  

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2018 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3