Nature notes: King Alfred's Cakes and a Shoveler

Finally able to drag the smalls out of the house last Sunday, we spent the afternoon at Woodberry Wetlands before walking back down the New River to Green Lanes. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago by Chris Farthing, there is a list up on the fence as you approach Rowley Gardens which we scrutinised for a bit to see if we had spotted some of the birds and animals on the list (happily, we had including a little knot of tufted ducks).

I also spotted that the fungi list mentioned King Alfred's Cakes (Daldinia concentrica). Mentioning to my eldest that I had never seen those, she surprised me by telling me that we should look for a black fungus (she usually views my nature walks as a trial to be undergone in exchange for treats at the end) - makes sense, of course, given the legend - and that she'd seen them in a book recently.

Sure enough, along a dead ash tree by the fence, we found a load of black fungi. Also known as coal fungus, they can be used like briquettes to get fires going, and cramp balls because they were used as a folk remedy for cramp - not to eat though, you carried them in your pockets or put them in your bed if you had night cramps.

These are quite old specimens as they are black. Newer growths are brown and not so shiny.

Also this week as I wended my way home across Lordship Rec, I paused at the lake to see what was there. I spotted more tufted ducks (love their blue beaks and fierce little yellow eye) and swimming around furiously (especially when he saw me coming) a male shoveler duck with its remarkable beak. He very much didn't want to be photographed, hence the fuzzy, long distance shot, but his beak is pretty obvious.

As I was leaving, I spotted the female which looks very much like a female mallard. I'm told there are two females there at the moment. (Have just realised I've been spelling this duck with double l until I looked it up on the RSPB website!).

Also spotted a bumble bee out and about at Railway Fields in the sunshine on Monday morning. I was a bit surprised but not unusual apparently to spot a worker bee out at this time of year. When I looked it up, the explanation was that probably a queen in a nest nearby is laying more workers. 

Finally, a reminder not to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve or take it our before Twelfth Night unless you want to incur bad luck. Plus make sure you get rid of every leaf or else expect trouble. Do any of you have a holly tree planted near your house? Holly was planted near houses as protection against fire, storm, lightning and...er...the Evil Eye. Many old houses will have them quite close to the door. 

Any interesting natural finds this week? Love to hear about them in the comments below.