David

A carrion crow up at the top of a tree in West Park. Its high vantage point would have given it a view over most of the park.

Lots of mushrooms are associated with trees. Some are not very particular about which kind of tree, while others occur only near one type of tree. Brown birch boletes are one such. The clue to the tree is in the name, which also gives an accurate description of the colour.

The reds and yellows of this liquidambar by the lake in West Park did look a bit like those of a particularly vivid flame, especially when reflected in the low waves on the surface of the water.

These circled milkcap mushrooms were growing under hornbeams by the side of a quiet residential street. Mklkcaps are a set of mushrooms which exude a white fluid when damaged. This species has caps zoned in rings in different shades of grey. It’s a species found under deciduous trees, particularly hornbeam.

A lone fly agaric mushroom in Bantock Park, possibly the last one which is likely to emerge this year. A wedge had somehow been removed from the cap, reminding me of a pizza from which one slice had been taken.

Two herons on the same island on West Park lake. Both were on the same side of the island, getting the full benefit of the morning sun.

The bird in the willow tree had already been in a similar spot a few times in the previous weeks, but I hadn’t seen the one on the ground before.