Coral Spot Fungus

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 I had a wander along the Waitby Greenriggs nature reserve near the house this morning looking for signs of life! Still no frogspawn to be seen and the recent cold weather seems to have delayed the development of the Spring flowers. I cam across a number of twigs and branches with these red spots on. I have seen these many times before but never bothered to look them up.


I reckon this is coral spot fungus Nectria cinnabar, a common plant pathogen  of broad-leafed trees all over the Northern Hemisphere.

Diary Notes
Warmer today about 8 C. Lots of birdlife. Woodpeckers drumming, buzzards mewing, pink footed geese, curlew calling, and the usual large flock of common gull on the fields which are still very wet.
I set the camera traps near the house last night in the hope of seeing stoats but all I got were over 100 ten second videos of wood mice. The only plant in flower along the nature reserve was gorse which famously is in flower in every month of the year.

Oh and if you have an itch you just need to scratch it!





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