Green woodpecker, possibly one of this year’s birds, standing on the top of a concrete post, surveying the recently mown grass between itself and me. The bird seemed oblivious to the presence of a cat which went strolling by on the car park not very far behind it.
I’m a sucker for the vivid colours of the autumn leaves of some non-native trees and bushes. Here’s a tree of heaven, growing beside the lock which separates the Shropshire Union Canal from the Staffs & Worcs Canal at Autherley Junction.
Clump of sulfur tuft mushrooms on a fallen tree trunk in Himley Plantation. For comparison, the same clump just over a week previously when they had not long emerged.
Tall weeping willow growing by the canal very near to Autherley Junction, with the leaves on its drooping branches just beginning to turn an autumnal yellow.
Brain purple-drop fungus, also known as jelly drops or purple jellydisc, inconspicuous because it is normally small, but distinctive when spotted, gelatinous and pale purple.
It grows on dead wood, often on fallen or felled tree trunks which have been left to recycle naturally, as here in the wood at Himley Plantation.
The parasol, probably the largest mushroom there is a reasonable chance of coming across in England (though the related shaggy parasol grows almost as big and is a lot more common).
The ones pictured in this set were in a group of fifteen or more in Himley Plantation in mid-October.
