IT might be a rather pessimistic observation, but it would seem that the nature reserves are already starting to show the first signs of the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

A walk through the woods of Habberley Valley will prove, or as in the case of the lucky few who took part in the preview walk at Hurcott pools and wood will testify, the first signs of the autumnal blooms of fungi can be seen starting to spread across much of the woodland floor.

In Habberley Valley I first became aware of the impending invasion of fungi when I walked through the woods at night. I usually enjoy walking at night especially in woods without the aid of a torch. The danger of tripping that this imposes, forces me to walk at a snail's pace and use my senses of peripheral vision, touch and hearing to navigate through the wood and usually also discover interesting things on the way.

This time, mainly due to the arrival of a big bright new torch I walked through the wood shining the beam before me.

The beam of light revealed there where hundreds of mushrooms covering the woodland floor. This was quite a shock as I had previously walked this stretch of woodland only a few hours before when I had not noticed any.

I knew that fungi could be rapid growing but this rate of growth would be unheard of. I hence decided to investigate further.

On closer inspection, the fungi in question turned out to be members of the Russula family. This family has beautiful, silky, snow-white stems and it was these that were gleaming in the light of my torch making them stand out fantastically in their drab woodland surrounds.

This particular Russula species also had a very drab coloration to the top of its cap so that in daylight the grey/green colour of the cap camouflaged the mushroom against the woodland floor.

In the woods at Hurcott one particular mushroom that was found was anything but camouflaged and I don't think what ever the coloration this mushroom had taken on would have stood much chance of hiding its sheer bulk.

At well over half a metre in circumference it initially looked more like a sheep asleep than a fungus. It was, of course, a giant puff ball.

Once these were a common enough sight but they tend to suffer badly at the hand, or should I say feet, of children who on discovery of these magnificent mushrooms tend to let the football-like appearance of the mushroom get the better of them and give them a good kick!