Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, February

The visitor centre and hide from across the lake.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 22 February 2014.

On a rare sunny day in February I walked round the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.   It's mostly for the bird lovers, and there was some talk of a Goosander having been seen recently, but I wasn't looking for that.

This centre is on the River Darent, which is very small as rivers go, but which at this point has been enlarged in the past by quarrying for gravel.  This created some small shallow lakes.

Bridge over the Darent on a walk round one of the lakes.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 22 February 2014.

You can see how small the river is - it's big enough to drown in, though, specially in wet weather, so some care is needed.

Snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 22 February 2014.

There were a few patches of snowdrops.  This one was tucked away behind a fallen tree.  I suspect they all originate from planted specimens.

The watery John Carter hide.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 22 February 2014.

There are a few hides scattered about for the bird watchers to use, and you can often see families as well as dedicated long-lens photographers making use of them.  By now, someone is probably thinking that it would have been a good idea to place this one a foot or so higher. Most are larger than this, with big windows.

Sarcoscypha species, Scarlet Elf Cup.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 22 February 2014.

This is what I wanted to see!  Scatters of scarlet fungi, a couple of inches across, growing on fallen branches down on the wet ground near that flooded hide.  You can't call this rare, but they certainly don't grow everywhere, and rarely in the numbers you can find here.

I have posted pics of these before, and a search for Sarcoscypha will  show you them, including some from this same spot last March.

All these photos were taken with my iPhone.  The strong saturation of the sky colours in the top photo are typical of this camera.