Page 33 - nov-2022

November 2022 November 2022

BERE REGIS WILDLIFE AND
ENVIRONMENT GROUP

Autumn is a magical season. Over the coming weeks
we should enjoy the culmination of Autumn’s dazzling
display of varied tree leaf and fruit colours. If you can,
do get out and enjoy the last of this natural show.

An autumn fungal treat

Autumn is the time when toadstools and other fungi are at their best and occur in
an amazing variety of sizes and shapes. There are an incredible 15,000 or more
types of fungi that occur in the UK and they occur in 5 different taxonomic
categories. We often take them for granted but they are a vital part of our
ecosystem. What we see, the toadstool or mushroom, are the fruiting bodies. As
we know some are edible but many are not, so be very careful! Do not attempt
to eat any fungi unless you are absolutely confident in your identification skills.
Below what we see are a very fine network of a root system called mycelia. This
can be short as in growths on rotten wood or can spread significant distances
through woodland. We now know that they form networks which have under whose rules we were swimming. Lisa was so encouraging and supportive of
considerable benefits to tree root systems. our swim, friendly and a guiding spirit!
This year after the hot dry summer and now a damp mild autumn, conditions are We left the marina and headed for our start point Abbotts Cliff between Dover
ideal for their growth and they are a colourful addition to sightings in a walk and Folkestone. As soon as we left the outer harbour it became clear that the
through woodland and undisturbed unfertilised grassland. The pictures here were weather was not in our favour. The wind was around 11 knots and gusting to 15
taken at the top of Mays Wood where a fine group of Parasol mushrooms knots or more, great for sailing but not for swimming.
appeared and in Higher Hyde nature reserve where amongst many fungi, most
attractive Bracket fungi and tree fungi grow on rotting wood whilst colourful Parviz was to start our swim from the beach. He descended the steps and
bright red Fly Agarics appear on the woodland. lowered himself into the water. It was 30 minutes past midnight when he swam to
shore to start the swim. He had to walk out and then get back in. Soon we could
see he was having difficulty breathing and with his timing as the waves swirled
about him. Often he would revert to breaststroke as he took in sea water and was
literally retching in the water.
It was a very unpromising start and the weather was to continue in this way for the
first 12 hours as each of our swimmers took their hour long stint. Linda was next in,
followed by Bob R, me, Kevin and then Robert. At different paces all swam
brilliantly in the conditions. And we all felt we just had to hang in there until the
wind dropped and our luck changed.
At around 6am the sky began to lighten and daylight appeared. With all our
swimmers having taken their first swim we were now on our second one hour stint.
Progress had been slow as we edged out into the channel and were being
pushed east by the prevailing spring tide. We eventually ended swimming in a

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