Author: David

The toadstool Tricholoma cingulatum, called the Girdled Knight on
Roger’s Mushrooms
website. But this is more or less a word for word translation of a German name, Beringter Ritterling.

A tiny flash of striking blue and red, but unmistakable as it zips along then rests to watch for prey.

The first picture is a cropped version of the second one.

This bird was fishing the upper section of the Stourbridge canal where it begins to peter out in the Buckpool LNR – in fact it is pictured at the start of the cul de sac side arm. I only had a brief view – the bird was not happy at the arrival of a large dog being walked along the other bank.

This fungus is a type of puffball. Instead of dropping its spores from some downward facing part of the fruiting body, they are released from the top, powered by raindrops landing on the spore container.

They really do look like nothing on earth, not even that much like other puffballs.

This is a tiny fungus, less than a centimeter high. To the naked eye, it can indeed look like the wick of a partially used candle, with ash on the end.

Heron intently staring at the water after prey on Fen’s Pool on the Pensnett nature reserve.

This year, most of the sloes which are within easy reach for picking (and picturing) seem to have disappeared very early, leaving only those which are awkwardly higher or lower on the bush. These were an exception. They were by a path on the Fen’s Pool LNR (the eponymous pool is in the background of the upper picture)