Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: October 2025

A fungus foray on the Earsham Estate, 28 October 2025

I met up with a few of what Belinda calls my ‘fungi friends’ for a foray on the Earsham Estate in south Norfolk on Tuesday. Many thanks to Jeremy for organising and for a warm welcome from our host Nick Meade.

We concentrated our efforts of Big Wood (erroneously called Great Wood on Ordnance Survey maps!) and the adjacent America Wood followed by The Lay about 2km to the south.

Conditions in the woods were very dry despite the reasonable amounts of rain recently. This affected the volume of fruiting bodies but we still managed to find Collared Earthstar, Golden Scalycap, Trooping Funnel, Conical Brittlestem, Magpie Inkcap, Beefsteak Fungus, Blueing Bracket, Peeling Oysterling, Roundspored Oysterling, Wet Rot, Hairy Leaf Parachute, Blushing Milkcap, Grooved Bonnet, Burgundydrop Bonnet and Splitgill amongst others.

Cutting our losses we decided to try The Lay, a small mere surrounded by willow scrub and oak with a large wet ‘drawdown’ area. This proved much more fruitful. Initially an area of burnt ground gave us Bonfire Greyling and Charcoal Goldeneye then in the damper areas a flood of goodies including Lakeside Webcap, Hollow Milkcap, Sticky Scalycap, Tiger Sawgill, Firerug Inkcap, Golden Scalycap, Spectacular Rustgill, Common Grey Disco and Oldcrab Brittlegill.

Following that a we made a quick visit to nearby Outney Common so I could show everyone ‘my’ Russula subrubens and while there we also scored with the usual Blushing Milkcaps and the unusual Trooping Webcap.

As ever, many thanks to Jeremy and Yvonne for their hard work confirming the id’s with microscopy etc at home.

Golden Scalycap

Hollow Milkcap

Collared Earthstar

Spectacular Rustgill

Trooping Webcap

Firerug Inkcap

Sticky Scalycap

Common Grey Disco

Tiger Sawgill

Charcoal Goldeneye

Bonfire Greyling

Burgundydrop Bonnet

Wet Rot

Grooved Bonnet

Lakeside Webcap

Magpie Inkcap

Two new fungi found locally

It’s always good to find your own stuff and I had 2 chance finds locally in the last few days.

The first was Inky Mushroom, Agaricus moelleri found close to the carpark at Ladybelt CP near East Carleton. A greyish and quite distinctive ‘yellowing’ agaricus.

The second was a pinkish resupinate, Bruising Porecap, Ceriporia purpurea found on a dead branch along a wooded trackway just south of Great Moulton while out walking. This is only the 12th Norfolk record.

Brown Shrike, new to Suffolk, 25 October 2025

Suffolk’s first Brown Shrike was found last week so I took time out on Saturday to make the drive down to Upper Hollesley Common to see it. The spot is one I know well from our walking exploits over the years but with the road closed at the Melton level crossing access was a bit tricky!

After a detour via Campsea Ash I eventually reached the site, slung the car onto the verge and was watching the bird within about a minute. That’s a slightly unrealistic description of how easy the bird was because it could prove elusive and mobile for periods during my 2 hours stay. Good views were had nonetheless although mostly too distant or obscured for getting crippling photos. 3 Crossbills perched briefly in pines over the road with several more were moving overhead, 3 Stonechats shared the heath and a Dartford Warbler rattled away briefly.

Peru - bring it on!

On 11 November I’m off to Peru for some serious South American birding. I have only been to that continent once before and that was a rather whistestop trip to Colombia in 2011 so it should prove to be tick-filled and very educational!

It’s time dust off the bird guides and do a bit of homework before I go but I’m not sure how much will go in. At least I’m a bit more prepared than I was in 2011!

The trip is to SE Peru in the high Andes around Cusco, Mollepata, Quillabamba and the famous Manu Road.

I will obviously document my trip fully on here.

Two nights away in SW Suffolk, 16 - 18 October 2025

A couple of nights away staying in Dedham and Sudbury.

Walking in the Dedham and Flatford area on day 1 yielded Kingfisher, Grey Wagtail, 4 Gadwall on the Stour plus Wood Blewit, Beefsteak Fungus and Chicken-of-the-Woods of note.

On day 2 we walked around Arger Fen and Spouse’s Fen SE of Sudbury finding Verdigris Roundhead, Stinking Dapperling and Oyster Mushroom.

Day 3 however produced much more with yet more Verdigris Roundheads, Dyer’s Mazegill, Hen-of-the-Woods, Orange Peel Fungus, Weeping Widow, Beefsteak Fungus and Dark Honey Fungus plus a late Hummingbird Hawkmoth and some clumps of Autumn Snowdrop. All in the grounds of Ickworth House.

Dune Fungi Bonanza at Holkham, 14 October 2025

Until last Tuesday I hadn’t ‘done’ dune fungi but all that was about to change! There are quite a few specialist dune fungi and there is no better place to look for them than Holkham/Burnham Overy Dunes.

Jeremy and Vanna are familiar with the site so I offered them a lift in return for some ‘guiding’ and in the end it turned out very well indeed.

Undoubted stars of the show were both the special dune earthstars - Tiny Earthstar and Dwarf Earthstar in two different areas. Tiny Earthstar in particular lives up to its name! On top of that we scored with Dune Cavalier, Dune Brittlestem, Dune Roundhead, Dune Stinkhorn and absolutely loads of Dune Waxcaps. The grassy/mossy strip on the seaward edge of the pines held a few goodies too with Copper Spike, the small orange cup fungi Neotiella rutilans, Dune Dapperling, Least Stinking Brittlegill, Bloody Brittlegill, Crab Brittlegill, Weeping Bolete, Saffron Milkcap, Bluefoot Bolete, Mild Milkcap, Liver Milkcap, The Sickener, Collared Mosscap and a perfect Plums and Custard on a rotting stump.

Vanna swept the sueda and marram for inverts and we scored with some fantastic dune specialities like the pseudoscorpion Marram Grass Chelifer, 4 spiders - Sand Bear Spider, Tibellus maritimus, Cricket Bat Spider and Dune Jumper plus a well-marked Fork-palped Harvestman.

A splendid day and a few miles walked!