Post 386 - Great Weekend Going Wild at Garbutt Woods

The lovely Garbutt Woods and some lovely bracket fungi.

A lovely gnarly tree by Lake Gormire

Hey everyone, Post 386 today and little update on my reserves challenge. In Post 384 I covered a few reserves that I managed to see on the way to Wheldrake Ings last Saturday. The weather was wild so when Sunday looked calmer I was able to get out again. I stayed a bit closer to home this time and went to an old favourite reserve at Garbutt Woods. This is just about inside the North York Moors and it's right by Sutton Bank, the UK's highest inland cliff, well I think I read that but if they aren't they are still very spectacular! There's a White Horse carved in the hill not far away and from the top of Sutton Bank you can see England's Finest View you can see all the way to the Dales on a good day. Next door to the reserve is Lake Gormire which is the last glacial lake in Yorkshire, very atmospheric. It's a pretty awesome place!

I've been here quite a few times as my family loves coming here for different walks. It's been a pretty great place for fungi this year especially Fly Agaric. It was a weekend for finding massive bracket fungi. I saw some at Moorlands Nature Reserve on Saturday. The ones here at Garbutt weren't quite as big but still very impressive!

I don't know which storm has had the most effect but there seems to be a few tress that have suffered, but then there are a lot of fallen trees and deadwood lying around which is probably one of the reasons why the place is great for fungi.

More great brackets

One of my favourite discoveries here was in Lake Gormire. I did a post on this back on Day 174 - I found a spooky resident in the Lake, a Leech!.

It was a lovely calm and quiet day and a lovely walk. On the lake there were a few Goosanders and Tufted Ducks and lots of Chaffinches and Tits in the trees. I didn't see a huge variety of wildlife this time, but it's such a lovely place that it doesn't matter. I'm sure I will on another visit.

We were being watched at points!

There wasn't a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust sign at the entrance of this reserve, well I couldn't find one the way I went in so I haven't got a shot of me by that this time.

I mentioned in Post 384 I've been putting my reserves challenge in a map - well this is it, you can see it below, and I'll try to keep it up to date as I go through the year - well Dad and I will as I need a bit of help with it now and again but I think it's a great way to show you where I've been.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.

Map of My Nature Reserves Challenge