Category: David

Purple brittlegill, one of several species of mushrooms growing under birch trees and conifers at the edge of the Pitch and Putt course at Bantock Park.

Another of the exotic shrubs planted in West Park so that something will be in flower at pretty much any time of the year. Fatsias originally came from Japan, and have fowers which start to open in the autumn.

Grey mushroom growing near the water’s edge by the canal at Castlecroft.

The delicate colours and elaborate structure of a robin’s pincushion is a gall, the rose bedeguar gall or moss gall. It is caused by a species of wasp which lays its eggs in wild roses.

The robin in the name is not the bird, but the woodland sprite Robin Goodfellow.

The fishing lake at Pool Hall, with the resident pair of swans taking off.

They flew, in a couple of short hops, towards the end of the lake. Then they seemed to start trying to boss around a group of mallards.

Earthstar fungi growing under the hedge by a towpath, almost hidden by nettles. They were collared earthstars, the commonest earthstar species.