hypercolius's Journal

The year 2023 is currently turning out the best I have ever seen for boletes. Although we are not quite at the 2013 level yet, when a collection in Thetford Forest saw the amount of penny buns obliterate the 120 mark, this year saw the appearance of many beautiful and very rare boletes, some of which have never been recorded in the areas I visited before.
My first visit was to a patch of forest in Thetford, where I found a few lurid boletes, penny buns and actually, finally, found scarletina boletes, which I have not seen there since 2016. Whilst exploring for them, I noticed a small, pure-yellow mushroom growing nearby, unlike anything I have ever seen before. When I touched it, it immediately bruised blue, bruising blue at the slightest touch.
I discussed it with the Norfolk County Recorder, and we both agreed that it was Neoboletus pseudosulphureus- an exceedingly rare species in the UK which is on the Red List as 'Endangered'. Such is its rarity that I left it alone and completely intact. The area in which I found it seemed most unsuitable for rare boletes like that to grow in.
My next trip was in early August to Windsor Great Park, to see how many rare mushrooms I could find. Last year, I found my first-ever bilious bolete in this area, including one with most unusual yellow pores. Windsor seemed far better for rare mushrooms, and I quickly found a huge butter bolete, as well as an interesting Neoboletus, spectacularly colourful but unfortunately mostly grazed by slugs.
As I cut the fungus open, the cap bruised normally. The stem, however, bruised extremely slowly, and the lower part of the stem did not bruise at all, remaining golden yellow and also with a golden-yellow stem in places. This behaviour is reminiscent of the fungus known as Boletus immutatus, which seems to occur at Windsor and practically nowhere else in Europe. I consulted Martyn Ainsworth about it, who said that it was close to the 'normal' immutatus, which doesn't bruise at all when cut, but not quite there, but still was a very unusual mushroom.
Next encountered was a bizarre inkstain bolete which failed to bruise profusely when cut open, instead remaining light blue throughout and, finally, in the evening, two majestic bilious boletes growing right by the edge of a busy road. Very richly-coloured boletes, with a powerful smell. Given everything found and realised up to October 2023, these still remain the most photogenic R. legaliae I have yet come across. All the others weren't as impressive.
During a subsequent trip around Kersey Tye in Suffolk, I had no idea that when I went for a late summer orchid I would end up finding a huge amount of rare boletes in the area.
Whilst almost there at the reserve I was going to, I noticed a few rooting boletes growing on a track leading to a field. As I explored, I found a cluster of at least 15 beautiful bilious boletes growing right out in the open, on the edge of this field!
These boletes had most unusual cap colours- almost bronze-red when mature. And there were more here than I saw during all my Windsor trips, combined!
After a few other mushroom trips to Thetford Forest and to Leigh Woods in Bristol, I decided to repeat a trip to Windsor to look for one very specific mushroom which had eluded me for years- something extremely rare in the UK and also one which has not been recorded in the UK using inaturalist before.
I was shocked when I found it- a group of two oldrose boletes!
This is probably the most beautiful fungus I have seen in my life. Even the Devil's bolete I found in October doesn't come close- because this fungus seemed like a kaleidoscope to me. Pink cap, a golden-yellow stem which turned sapphire-blue when cut open, bruising blue all over at the slightest touch. Endangered in the UK, this may yet increase in numbers as a result of warmer summers.
The next time I sought mushrooms was in Coventry. It was early oOctober and, after finding a huge cluster of rooting boletes in the university as well as lurid boletes nearby, I inadverantly cycled past a group of bilious boletes when I finally saw them!
These were visually stunning, and there was a huge group of them growing underneath that tree. To my knowledge, these have never occurred in Coventry before.
A few days later, I found another group nearby, followed by a king bolete on the university grounds as well! However, the second legaliae group was wiped out by mowing. Searching for any 'survivors' of this rampage afterwards, I found a majestic example growing in a ditch, and was shocked to discover it had yellow pores when I turned it over!
The yellow-pored legaliae to my knowledge only occured in Windsor! And here was one giant example from my university! Exploring further, I was further shocked when I found the slightly shredded remains of a young Devil's bolete, which had been ripped out of the ground. It was damaged, but as I investigated, its bruising, colouration, and rather revolting smell all indicated Rubroboletus satanas.

Currently my orchid hunting is going better than I expected.
In March during my trip to Spain I found the searingly beautiful mirror orchid (the prettiest I've ever seen) in massive swarms near the place I stayed, and in April topped that up with sawfly orchids and yellow bee-orchids.
On the 28th May, after a month of collecting information, I felt that I knew where to look for the Essex tongue orchids. When I did find the colony of the critically endangered for the UK orchid, I was astounded to see that I had pinpointed the correct location of the colony on a map before, within 20 meters. I was doubly amazed after I saw the state of the meadow. Let's just say the colony is impossibly well hidden. The orchids were beautiful, and it seemed to me that there was a density of over 100 orchids per square meter here!
Moving on to Ipswich, where I tried and failed to see man orchids last year, I checked my two sites. At one of them I found 5-7 orchids, mostly going over. But at the other, there were three immaculate orchids.
After some analysis, I was able to locate where to look for the extremely rare early marsh ochroleuca orchid, and just today went out and found them without a problem. The ochroleucas grow in only three places in the UK, like the tongue orchids. But the ochroleucas are very scarce at all sites, whereas the tongue orchids grow in massive colonies where they occur. This reminded me of last year's military orchids, with the site I visited having 95% of the UK population.
Currently the only other orchids I desire to see this year are fen orchid, marsh fragrant orchid and marsh helleborine. The marsh orchids will be relatively easy- they occur in swarms at the ochroleuca site I visited. But I have serious doubts about finding the fen orchid. I know where to go and look, but the orchid is just so small and blends in so well... I also intend to see glow-worms this year as well.
After this, the orchids I'm really interested in finding are ghost orchid, red helleborine, Lady's slipper and small-flowered tongue orchid, the rarest UK orchids. That will be for next year.
What concerns ghost orchid, that is a nearly impossible task. If it does grow somewhere, it will be so heavily protected nothing will be learned about the site. I know where it occurred in the past though, so may get lucky. Lady's slipper is easy- just visit the reserves where the plants can be viewed growing wild. The small-flowered tongue orchid is an enigma. After being refused access to the London roof where they set up a colony, my only other chance is the newly-established Suffolk colony. I know nothing about the location except its general area, and I really don't want to visit that place. but I may be able to find it after intensive searches. Red helleborine is also easy- I know all 3 sites where it occurs.

For this year I have specific wildlife targets which I would like to see

I'm actively searching for a white frog seen around Cambridge last spring- hopefully it is still alive and returns to spawn. I also hoped to one day visit the pool frogs at Thompson Common.
Regarding orchids, my biggest wish is to see the chalk fragrant-orchid, which eluded me last year. I also intend to visit two of the three UK reserves home to the white morph of early marsh orchid to see the plant, as well as reserves where burnt-tip orchid and fen orchid grow, as well as check the Cambridge colonies of bee, common spotted, marsh and pyramidal orchids as well as white helleborine.
Bird-wise, I hope to see northern goshawk, spoonbill, osprey, tawny owl in the UK
Regarding fungi, hopefully the chicken of the woods grows in big quantities in Paradise LNR again for me to eat