I joined six friends on Wednesday 4 September for what was supposed to be a 5 or 6 kilometre walk from Rond du Chêne, the hunting lodge in the heart of the Forest of la Guerche. However, due to some rubbish map reading (not by me) we ended up doing nearly 8 kilometres. As well as the extra distance, luckily none of it uphill, we were plagued by numerous biting clegs Haematopota sp. Even I ended up with four bites, and I am not normally troubled by these persistant blood feeders. Along the way we encountered several groups of cyclists, a forester and his intern, and a Dutch woman who greeted us from her garden.
A somewhat mutant looking Wood Cauliflower Mushroom Sparassis crispa (Fr. Sparassis crépu) I think.
A group of cyclists crossing through the forest on the road.
The étang (dam) on the Allée de Dangé. You can just see white waterlilies flowering.
Teetering dead tree.
On a forest trail.
One of many Red Slugs Arion rufus (Fr. Grande loche) that we encountered.
Ash Black Slug Limax cinereoniger (Fr. Grande Limace). Unlike the Red Slugs, this was the only one we saw.
Red Slugs mating.
Heading out into the forest.
Sessile (French) Oak Quercus petraea (Fr. Chêne rouvre). 'Sessile' means 'stalkless' and refers to the acorns. It is one of the dominant species in this forest.
The Holly Ilex aquifolium (Fr. Houx) berries are starting to colour up.
No comments:
Post a Comment