Page 5 - Wildlife News August 2018

make a Explore further on one of our circular Wild Walks. Tring Park Wild Walk takes in Dancersend, while our
day of it Wild Walk One explores the best of the West Berkshire Living Landscape, including Bowdown Woods.
Download these leaflets and others at bbowt.org.uk/nature-reserves/wild-walks

A FUNGI FORAY

Majestic Bowdown Woods is one of the nature reserves central to Can you find them?
the West Berkshire Living Landscape, a landscape-scale approach
to conservation that’s creating corridors where wildlife can thrive Porcelain fungus.
and spread (turn the page for more on this Living Landscape). (GUY EDWARDES/2020 VISION)

Sandwiched between the vast open heathland of Greenham Pipe club.
and Crookham Commons to the south and the River Kennet (PETER CREED)
to the north, the tapestry of habitats found here make it a fine
destination for a stroll at any time of the year. Summer into Snakeskin grisette. (PETER CREED)
autumn is particular riotous, when sunny glades come alive with Sulphur knight.
butterflies and ancient woodlands fill with fungi. (PETER CREED)

The woodland at Bowdown consists of three areas, each with Get to know your fungi. Order A Guide to Finding Fungi in Berkshire,
its own charm. At its heart is the Bomb Site, so named because Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire by Peter Creed and help BBOWT at
of its use during and after the War as an ammunition store. The the same time. Order your copy at naturebureau.co.uk/bookshop
Bomb Site is a fine example of how nature can recover when and enter code ‘BBOWT10’ in the SAVE box. You get 10% off, while we
man moves on. Old surfaced tracks are slowly being reclaimed, receive 25% of the profits!
while young birch and oak establishes the next generation of
woodland. Where buildings once stood, reptiles like adders Take a wander through this remarkable marriage of old, and
and common lizards now bask and hunt. Areas of heathland not so old. Sharpen your senses, keep a wandering eye and you’ll
glimpsed from the tracks offer further reptilian refuge and benefit be in for many surprises.
butterflies like the small copper.

Ancient woodland either side of the Bomb Site is both shadier
and wetter. Streams trickle through here towards the Kennet,
creating valleys that support moisture-loving alder and willow.
But as the leaves take on their autumnal tints it’s time for the first
of the fungi.

Fungi fanciers will have a field day at Bowdown Woods! From
sulphur knight, sometimes called the ‘Gas Works Mushroom’
because of its strong gaseous smell, to the super-delicate looking
porcelain fungus, the purposefully slow and observant walker
won’t be disappointed. Another curiosity is the pipe club, whose
slender fruiting bodies rise up from the leaf litter like tiny fungal
skyscrapers. Down in the valley bottom you might be lucky
enough to find the rare snakeskin grisette, its shaggy banded
stem resembling its namesake, topped with a yellow-brown cap
flecked with felty patches.

Bowdown Woods. (ROB APPLEBY)
Wildlife news / August 2018 5