David

It’s not just the tourist attractions, shops and restaurants of Stratford on Avon which have been hit by the fall in tourist numbers during the pandemic. The huge crowds of swans which gather on the river where it flows through the centre of the twon seem to be somewhat reduced in numbers. Many do still remain. In the absence of human-provided bread or gain, they are resorting more often to flocking to the Recreation Ground on the left bank, cropping grass.

Macro-fungi come in many colours which are not found, or are found only very rarely, in plants or animals. But only a handful of British species are blue. On a visit to Compton Verney in Warwickshire at the start of this month, we came across two different blue species in the grounds.

I’m not sure what species these were. Although they had been up for some time, and were showing signs of age, most still kept some of their bright blue colours. They were in a small patch of open ground surrounded by a variety of different trees and bushes at the back of the ice house.

Black and glistening, these are privet berries. They were growing in the hedge separating the parkland of Compton Verney from the narrow but busy road running alongside.

Growing at the base of a tree on the riverbank at Stratford on Avon, two different species of inkcap mushrooms in adjacent masses. The paler ones are common inkcaps, the yellower ones, glistening inkcaps (which in my experience are a lot more common, at least in the west midlands).

Planted for their autumn colour, these liquidambar trees make a striking effect in the days just before their leaves come down. They are in a line along the road by the main entrance to the RSC theatre in Stratford.

Still standing where we’d spotted the egret, the deer and the kingfisher, we looked down to the ground. There we saw some earthstars, which we think may be crowned earthstars (Geastrum coronatum), a fungal rarity.