Bovey Heath

Woodland gem-studded marvels

It’s 47 years ago today that I first noted down Common Puffballs in my nature notebooks. The tiny gem-like spikes on the …

It was the 10th October when I lifted a piece of corrugated iron to see if there might be a reptile still …

It’s clearly thirsty work flying from Africa to the UK. I pop into the Devon Wildlife Trust Reserve at Bovey Heathfield for …

What type of organism has 20,000 species, covers between 6 to 8% of the Earth’s land surface and has some of the …

There are the remains of a small tree on Bovey Heath. It’s started to disintegrate and the trunk has shattered. Deep within …

This Birch Bracket fungus is Piptoporous betulinus. It looks like a bicycle saddle here. I almost expect it to have springs underneath like …

In early autumn I visited Bovey Heath to meet John Walters, a fabulous entomologist, artist and speaker. He’d promised to show me …

There are warty jewels hidden amongst the leaves on the woodland floor. These are Common Puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum. It’s always an impressive …

There’s a beautiful baby pink fungus on the Heath. I suspect it might be Mycena rosea, the Rosy Bonnet: It’s hard to …

There are Fly Agarics in abundance on Bovey Heath at the moment. It’s tricky to find one which hasn’t been partially eaten …

2019 has seen me explore Devon a little more. I’ve been out onto Emsworthy Mire on Dartmoor a few times to enjoy …

Amanita muscaria; the Fly Agaric. Magical, aren’t they?

I’m at Bovey Heathfield. It’s not quite Dartmoor and the heath is a lowland heath. There are plenty of spiders blocking the …

I’ve finally managed to have a trip out to Bovey Heath. It’s a tiny remnant of the heathland which would have covered …