Friday 3rd.October 2008

A one and a half hour wander around High Elms Country Park this afternoon , was to say the least quiet . Birdwise , apart from a Green Woodpecker at the Orchid Bank and another at Burnt Gorse , a Goldcrest , a few Tits and several Corvids and Wood Pigeon , the only other moving thing I saw was one man and his dog .

The dry morning with sunny intervals , turned into cloudy afternoon with a few sharp showers . On my last couple of visits here , I have looked out for one of my favourite fungi , and this is the only place I know locally to find it . I did find two specimens before , but one had been well chewed , and the other had well gone over . So it was nice to find it in a few in different stages of developement .

It erupts out of the leaf litter , looking not unlike The Gerkin , in the City of London .

It grows to about 15 cm. high , before

the cap opens up like an umbrella before going over , having dispersed it's spores .The white on the cap is parts of the veil , which surrounds the whole thing as it comes out of the ground .In total , I found about ten specimens of Coprinus picaceus-Magpie Fungus , Quite fitting , as the most vocal bird heard during my visit was the Magpie-Pica pica . Another fungi that I only find here is the wonderfully common named Tricholompsis rutilans-Plums and Custard . This specimen has only just emerged , but I shall go back in a few days and photograph it when fully grown , when the common name really comes to the fore . They grow on and around conifer stumps , so will have to hope it doesn't get chewed in the meantime . On the Orchid Bank , as if confirmation was required , Michaelmas Daisies , an introduced species from North America , was in full flower , one of the few flowers I saw today . Again today , I found the slime mould Tubifera ferruginosa ,

and a bright yellow fungi , which isn't a slime mould Bisporella citrina .

The only other thing of interest found , was a bracket type fungi Phaeolus schweinitzii , which is parasitic on conifers , usually arising from the roots . When I got home , I was having a cup of coffee , when all hell broke out on the road outside , between two particular Jackdaws , and about another 10 aiding and abetting . I dashed upstairs to get a shot from the front window , and got there just as a workman across the road , threw something to break things up . It worked , but not before I got this shot . One second later , the rumpus was over and all was quiet .

If nothing else , today has taught me that finding interesting material to post is going to get harder and harder . So posts might not be as frequent in the future , just depends on what's about , and of course , the weather .