Alan Bevington writes:

Watermead Country Park was created in the 1980s from a complex of disused gravel workings along the River Soar north of Leicester [1]. Even though Watermead South is the part of the park that lies within the Leicester City boundary, it offers a variety of habitats:  including flooded gravel pits (now known as Mammoth Lake and Nature Lake) and the adjacent River Soar, deciduous woodland and willow scrub which potentially provide good opportunities to find waterfowl and other wetland birds, but also possibly other forms of wildlife.

In spite of heavy rain the previous day and heavily overcast conditions on the day, seven members of the section met to explore this part of the park by following a route skirting Mammoth Lake then striking south on a path between the east bank of the River Soar and the west shore of Nature Lake.

It was expected that the most visible wildlife would be the birds. This proved to be the case and 34 species (plus 2 domestic breeds) were detected in only two hours. In addition to the resident water bird population of Mammoth Lake (which includes a heron roost dominated by Little Egrets and Great White Egrets) a flock of about 20 female Goosanders was found. A female Red-breasted Merganser had also attached itself to the flock.

Apart from Mallard, Tufted Duck and a single male Goldeneye however there were few other wintering ducks. No Pochard or Wigeon were seen, possibly a consequence of the well-documented “short-stopping” phenomenon whereby fewer ducks, geese, swans and waders have been wintering in the UK in recent years, remaining in northern and central Europe instead [2]. The walk round Mammoth Lake also detected faint but repeated squeals from a Water Rail, and a short song burst from a Cetti’s Warbler was heard during the walk down the River Soar.

Even though this visit was not intended as a fungus event, some effort was made to record fungi. Over most of the route none were seen, but towards the end of the walk at least 10 species of fruiting fungi were found within a 10 minute period, mostly within a “hot spot” of a few yards between the west shore of Nature Lake and the east bank of the River Soar. The most numerous were the small Bonnet Caps (Mycena sp) visible in large numbers on the moss-covered tree trunks, but larger fungi included Sticky Scalycap (Fig 1) and deep-red aged specimens of Blushing Bracket (Fig 2). Jelly fungi including Jelly Ear and Amber Jelly (Fig 3) were also found on adjacent dead wood. The reason for this uneven distribution of fruiting fungi was unclear, but suggests that a future visit to this site at the height of the fungus fruiting season might yield interesting results.

Fig 1 Sticky Scalycap (Pholiota gummosa) (Photo: Sue Hitchings)

Fig 2 Blushing Bracket (Daedaleopsis confragosa) (Photo: Alan Bevington)

Fig 3 Amber Jelly (Exidia recisa) (Photo: Helen Ainsworth)

A full report will be published in the next newsletter, which is available to members.

References

[1] https://www.leicester.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/parks-and-open-spaces/our-parks/watermead-country-park-south

[2] https://www.bto.org/our-work/news/press/ducks-take-dive-milder-winters-keep-birds-unfrozen-north

(Photo at top: Alan Bevington)