ST4039 First Trip Out

Finally got out into the field this afternoon within my chosen square ST4039. I may tweak the boundaries a little as only 80% of the square is within the Shapwick NNR boundary and the remaining 20% is on private land belonging to one of the peat extraction companies. I may shift it a little to the west to bring it all within the reserve as I will have no problems with access then. The only problem I can see is that from a recording point of view, some of the records will be from the square next door as far as NBN is concerned and I may have a job to keep that side of it organised. I'll wrestle with the logistics over the next few days and decide. Today was wet, a band of rain was well over Somerset by the time I'd finished planting Raspberry canes this morning and got out to Shapwick so the list so far is mainly birds and trees as I thought I'd save grubbing about in the interesting undergrowth for a finer bit of weather :-) I managed 62 species, highlights being two female Marsh Harriers and a Kingfisher. Saw several nice looking fungi that I couldn't get to out in the flooded woodlands but also found a nice colony of Scarlet Elf Cap. I have brought home a container of wood rot and some moss to go through tomorrow when rain is on the menu once more :-) Didn't hear any Bitterns tuning up but they have been heard on Ham Wall RSPB reserve already so it will happen soon.