After my much enjoyed walk around Thorndon Country Park, a couple days previous, I decided I wanted to visit another local wood. This time I chose Tile Woods in Benfleet, run by Essex Wildlife Trust, a small woodland that I have driven past countless times over the years.
At approximately 7 hectares this ancient woodland acts as a wildlife corridor between Little Havens Wildlife Reserve and Pound Wood, somewhere I recently visited for the first time, which are part of the Daws Heath wooded landscape. Tile Wood has numerous species of trees including a number of rare Service Trees as well as numerous species of Fungi, which I thoroughly enjoyed finding, many species of birdlife and even resident deer. On my visit I even got to watch a kestrel hunt for its breakfast.
As you enter the woods there is a large sign showing you a map of the woods which I took a quick browse of then set off along one of the tracks and promptly took a wrong turning and ended up walking through the Little Havens Reserve, which I have written about in another post. Having arrived back from my detour I re-read the sign post and set of in the correct direction this time, in fact I went in the opposite direction. The entire walk was beneath the canopy of trees, which I absolutely love, and the pathways were nice and unkempt covered with fish fallen leaves. Now those of you that read my posts will know that I love spotting wild mushrooms and this woods did not disappoint with the amount, and quantity, of different species that I was finding. Honey Fungus, Puffballs, Brown Roll Rims, Wax caps, Fools Funnels and many more were all there waiting for me to discover them. Squirrels were scurrying about every turn and I even saw a few Jays flitting between the trees, not to mention the twisty birds that I only caught quick flashes off as they disappeared from sight.
HONEY FUNGUS 
FOOLS FUNNEL 
PUFFBALLS 
PUFFBALL 
The walk only lasted half an hour but honestly I really recommend paying Tile Wood a visit as it is a glorious place to lose yourself. I will probably pop back there in the next few days to harvest a few Honey Fungus so that I can try cooking and eating them as they are meant to be quite tasty.
I recorded the whole walk in my KOMOOT account so click HERE if you would like to follow the exact route that I took.
