David

The delicate pink spreading across the cap of a rosy bonnet mushroom. From the fungi-rich woodland at Himley Plantation.

The Rollright Stones are a group of standing stones in the Cotswolds. There’s a stone circle, a group of somewhat taller stones which are the remains of a prehistoric tomb, and, taller still, a single standing stone.

The complex is a few miles from Chipping Norton, a little way from the smaller village of Rollright. The tall standing stone – the King Stone – is separated from the others by a minor road, which is also the county boundary. So it’s in Warwickshire, the rest in Oxfordshire.

These pictures are all of the stones in the circle, as they were in late summer a few years ago.

Common darter are one of the easier dragonfly species to photograph. They often stand at rest in sunny patches, and can be less wary than other types. But the females tend to show themselves more rarely than the males, and more prone to flying off when someone gets close.

So I was surprised several years ago around this season when a female common darter landed just inches from where I was crossing the bridge over the Railway Walk at Castlecroft, and even more surprised when I was able to get off several close-up pictures without any signs she was disturbed. These are pictures I never posted at the time.

Deceivers, small and quite common mushrooms. They’re very variable in form, and especially in colour, so quite easy to mis-identify. This sample shows some of that range of colour.

A robin which landed almost by my feet and immediately began to busily peck at the ground for insects. As well as being hungry, it was perhaps a young bird which had not yet learned the importance of caution.

A bracket fungus, quite small though possibly not yet at its full size. It was growing on a tree trunk conveniently at a little below my level. That made it a little easier to get pictures both of the pores on the lower surface, and the view of the upper turning brown.

I’ve seen very few gatekeeper butterflies this year, but this one landed very obligingly om some water mint flowers just yards from where I was standing, then started feeding.

A large bracket fungus near the base of the trunk of one of the trees by the drive in Bantock Park. Below the fungus, a spider’s web has caught lots of the spores it shed.

Some dragonflies are much easier to photograph than the hawkers. Tis is a male common darter. They’re a species which spend more time on sunny days resting on the ground or some other convenient perch near to water. This one kept taking off, flying briefly, then landing back on the path. Every time, it was a little closer to me.

The flowers turning to seed, and turning delicate colours in the process, a common reed by the edge of a canal.