Category: David

Magpie, cautious as it climbs down the wall for a drink of water from the West Park lake.

Fly agarics, bright red caps, but the white flecks of the “warts” over the caps all washed way by bouts of heavy rain. The so-called warts are the remnants of a veil which protected the caps as they pushed their way through the soil.

Blue roundhead (Stropharia caerulea) mushrooms. These are from the same small grouping, growing in long grass on tow different days. On one of the days, the lighting conditions gave the blue tinge to the fungi a more marked effect.

Leaves on a young oak by the canal near Compton. The leaves, browning from the tip, are not just turning an autumn colour.

When I looked at the underside of the leaves, they were more or less densely covered in spangle galls. The browning of the upper surfaces have patches of darker brown, located directly over the galls below.

Three herons on the south-facing side of an island in the lake at West Park. The one getting the most pictures here was a mature male. It was clearly visible standing in the direct sun on the branches of one of the weeping willows. A second was harder to spot, almost hidden by foliage as it stood deeper within the same willow.

The third bird was right by the edge of the water. when I first arrived. However, it retreated up the beach while I was getting my camera out, and was in the shade, half-hidden by the trunk of a conifer, by the time I could picture it.

mushrooms, quite large, and with distinctive, bright red caps, in Himley Plantation recently. Despite their striking appearance, I have no identification to offer for them.