Morals and Morels, Sunday 9th April 2017

I sometimes get the expected reaction from visitors wrong, (to be fair though not often), so today when I went to speak to a visitor with two dogs, which on a previous occasion had run all over the space I was working in, I didn't expect  a good outcome.. how wrong I was the chap was really engaged with the work we are doing and how our interaction with visitors is having a positive effect. There's a moral there somewhere.

Now for those Morels, to be precise one Morel, Morchella esculenta , I hadn't seen a Morel for over 25years so when local fungi legend Dr Philip Jones directed me to a specimen he had located on the reserve I was off to find it.

The Morel is actually a "cap" fungi, just like a toadstool however the spores are carried in the brain like structures on the upper surface, as the latin name suggests they can make good eating, if you can get there before the snails and slug and all manner of other invertebrate, plus of course they tend to be full of sand.

On the beach I found a beetle which I need confirmation of, however I think it may be one of the three species of Platydracus , which don't seem to have a "common name", when I find out what it is actually I'll post an update.

Platydracus spp?

Whilst on the beach I also found a whole "Sea Potato" still covered in spines.