More shots of some of the cormorants, currently resident in West Park. Two of the birds, standing on the same branch of a fallen willow as they preen. Meanwhile, a third bird looks on.
Juvenile cormorant preening, West Park
Twisting and contorting as it arranges its feathers, one of the cormorants currently resident on the West Park lake, preening. The white feathers on its chest mark it as a young bird.
Inkcaps: fairy inkcaps
Fairy inkcaps are tiny mushrooms which appear in tight clusters. They grow on rotting wood, often tree stumps. Colour an vary from brown to grey.
Inkcaps: shaggy inkcaps
Shaggy inkcaps, freshly emerged (above) and in various stages of deliquescing (below). The caps don’t have gills or pores to release the gills. Instead, they disintegrate into a black mush, starting at the rim and heading inwards.
Autumn and winter fungi: sulfur tuft
Sulfur tuft mushrooms can appear during the autumn fungi flush, but they are also one of the few hardier types which can throw up new fruiting bodies even in the depths of winter.
They grow near the base of tree stumps and on fallen logs. When wet, as here, the caps can look like they have a gelatinous surface.
Toadstool, Shottery
The illustrators of fairy stories usually portray idealised versions of this mushroom, a fly agaric, which are fresher than this one.
It was growing, several years ago, right by the footpath from the centre of Stratford to Anne Hathaway’s cottage at Shottery.