Second Kilvey Foray

I decide to do a longer foray from Port Tennant side up to the transmitters then back down to Pentre-chwyth Road. I dose myself up and whilst I'm coughing, wheezing and sneezing I have a good look around. The weather is warm and sunny. I can count the people I meet on one hand, including two teenage boys listening to Eminem who are startled when I step out of the trees.
There is little of note except an abandoned tent until I get to the transmitters at the top.


What really surprises me is the vast areas of trees and heather that have been burnt away by fire starters. It's worse than I had imagined, desolate and grim, even though there is vegetation already showing, it's a sad scene.


The mushrooms I do find are things I have either recorded or seen last week and they're all pretty dessicated from the heat but there is still the odd Amanita rubescens fruiting and also Russula ochroleuca but not in the great numbers as I had expected. When I reach the transmitters my box is empty. Though I photograph a good Tricholomoposis rutilans..


At the transmitters is a wooded area that is usually abundant in mushrooms even if it's just R ochroleuca but not this time; instead, the soil is churned up by what looks like horses, which come this way occasionally and indeed the ground is a carpet of dung piles. On the positive side I hope that some fungi will take advantage of the situation.
I carry on into the wood and eventually I find a couple of things that I can't identify first hand. Indeed one is a mushroom I've never seen before. So I collect a couple to look at later. There are a handful of Paxillus involutus/Brown Rollrim scattered about.
I also find a couple of slime moulds. One is Fuligo septica, below..

I'm not sure what the other is however

Passing the transmitters and taking the path that runs along the edge of the trees there is still a lovely view if nothing else mushroom wise.

Continuing down, the damage to the soil is constant with large swathes churned up by what can only be by machines, possibly motorbikes and I notice more broken or burnt trees. I get back onto the main road to and from the transmitters and it's here that I find Pluteus cervinus/Deer Shield, living on a hill of wood chippings.

I've seen this mushroom here before and Kilvey has quite a lot of woodchip hills dotted about but this is the first year I have seen them in numbers.

In the front is Pluteus cervinus, behind is a Russula ochroleuca.

The amount of R. ochroleuca is greater here but still sporadic. It's not until I get to the bottom of the road, before I swing a left and walk back into the woods that I find some Suillus grevillei/Larch bolete and another mushroom I can't identify, but take some for examination later.

Apart from seeing a pair of green woodpeckers, the rest of the walk offers nothing and I zigzag across paths to cover as much area as I can. I do find a few Suillus luteus/Slippery Jack but they are young and I leave them. I may come back to check on their progress later.
The only other thing that catches my eye is the burnt remains of a sculpture. There are quite a few wood sculptures here. Sadly this is just another victim of vandalism that strikes the hill every summer, every year.


Kilvey Hill. 01-9-10
Tricholomoposis rutilans/Plums and Custard
Russula ochroleuca/Ochre Brittlegill
Suillus luteus/Slippery Jack
Suillus grevillei/Larch bolete
Pluteus cervinus/Deer Shield
Amanita rubescens/The Blusher
Hypholoma fasciculare/Sulpher Tuft
Paxillus involutus/Brown Rollrim
Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca/False Chanterelle