Fungi hunting at Margam Park, Port Talbot

Date: 6 November 2016

Location: Margam Country Park, Junction 38 M4, Port Talbot, SA13 2TJ

We woke up to a sunny November morning and decided to visit one of our favourite haunts, Margam County Park, about 2 miles from Port Talbot. Still obsessed with finding fungi we were pretty sure we would get lucky in this 850 acres park.

We got there about 11.30am and started exploring this wonderful place. Autumn had well and truly arrived and most of deciduous trees were now displaying glorious colours of yellow, orange and reds. 

Our first stop was around The Chapter House (the abbey ruins) where we found many wonderful trees, including the two below...

A huge tree near the Chapter House displaying fabulous autumnal colours

Large ancient tree by the Abbey

There were lots of birds flying around the Abbey and into the nearby trees: blue tits, great tits,  jackdaws and a song thrush. Unfortunately I was only able to get a photo of the song thrush.

Song Thrush

Has we made our way to the pond we stumbled across our first fungi of the day, there were an array of them but unfortunately we were unable to identify them...(perhaps you guys can help).

Small fungi growing out of old wood

A sort of puffball fungi maybe?

There were quite a few ducks and geese on the pond including Canada Geese, Mallard and then a wonderful splash of colour appeared - a Mandarin! My favourite duck, there wasn't just one there was one male and two females. Such a beautiful bird and always make me smile.

Dan feeding the ducks with premium duck and swan food
(only the best for our local birds)

Female Mallard

White duck (domestic?)

Mandarins - male with 2 females.

Male & Female Mandarin

For here we made our way to Margam Castle, it wasn't long before we stumbled across some more fungi including what I think is a Parasol Mushroom and possibly some Honey Fungus (?). Margam Castle looked wonderful amongst the Autumnal colours and every time I see the 19th Century Tudor Mansion it always impresses me.

Parasol Mushroom (?)

Honey fungus (?)

Margam Castle

After a little refreshment break at the Castle's Courtyard and a lovely chat with Jeff (one of the friends of Margam Park volunteers) we made our way to the new pond. There were Canada Geese and mallard on there and a very curious Carrion Crow that came quite close to us. At the bottom of the pond we walked along the train track (the train wasn't running) and noticed a stonechat on the rails.

Carrion Crow

The view of Margam Castle from the other side of the pond

Female stonechat on the rails

A close up of the stonechat in the trees

We were now in the deer park and it wasn't long before we stumbled across a beautiful Red Deer Stag - they look so beautiful this time of year and was hoping to see some rutting - no luck this time, never the less we were still pleased to get relatively close to them. There were some females in the rusty coloured ferns, making some of them almost camouflaged.

Red Deer Stag

Red Deer Stag with marvelous antlers

Red deer does in ferns

From here we started making our way back into the main part of the park and past a wood chipping heap full of bright orange fungi! There was also a striking bright red fungi among some nettles that caught our eyes.

Fungi in wooden chips

Orange peel fungi?

Margam Park was full of fungi, lots I can't identify due to my basic knowledge of Mycology. Even though I am not familiar with some of these specimens it doesn't stop my admiring their beauty and I love photographing them. The only downside of the day was the lack of Fly Agaric, which I haven't seen at all this year  :(

Fungi growing out of dead log

Closeup of the fungi

More fungi...

...even more fungi!

A bracket fungi makes it's home within a tree truck...it looks like a little fairies home :)

Time was getting on so we made our way back to the car park, along the way we stumbled across more fungi...A 8 foot tall one! We also saw a few small bird including goldfinches and some blue tits. We past an awesome sculpture of Pan: The god of the wild and nature, which was a nice symbolic end of the day.

Check out the fungi I found!

Goldfinch

Pan wooden sculpture

So another wonderful day in Margam Park, I love this place so much and every time I visit I see something new. You could literally spend the whole day here and is one of the diverse places in South Wales where you can find everything from nature to history.

When we got back to the car a little robin bid us goodbye...

Robin singing us a goodbye tune

Check out my other blogs of previous visits to Margam Country Park...

Margam Park in the snow - 20 January 2013

Margam Park - 4 January 2014

Margam Park - 14 February 2016