A misty walk on The Roaches Estate today.

Waxcap fungi with Hen Cloud in the background.

Cowberry berries on Cowberry growing amongst Crowberry.

A waxcap fungi.

Fungi growing in grassland between Hen Cloud and the Roaches. 

Red Grouse droppings. The slimy brown droppings are caecal droppings from the grouse's caecum in which the typically indigestable and unnourishing food (e.g. heather shoots) that make up a ren grouse's winter diet is metabolised by gut microbes into useful molecules such as protein. The fibrous, cylindrical droppings are from the intestine - they are capped with white urine. 

Larvae of Fox Moth - a heathland moth species whose larvae feed on bramble, heather, bilberry plus others. 

The Dane at the boundary of The Roaches Estate.

Ravens in the Churnet Valley

Due to persecution by gamekeepers in the 19th Century Raven's were not a very common sight in England - however since the advent of more enlightened views about bird ecology and wildlife legislation in the 20th C. Ravens have become more common. This is one of two that were feeding on a dead rabbit in the Churnet Valley today. Photo by Terry Eyre.