Category: David

Fennel, or possibly dill. Growing on the site of the former local authority plant nursery, so quite likely an escaped cultivar.

Silk button spangle galls, circular with a depression in the middle, thickly strewn on the underside of an oak leaf. Common spangle galls, also found on the underside of oak leaves, rise to a peak in the centre.

Bracket fungi at the bases of trees. The brown dust covering them, a small fraction of the millions of spores released by the next higher fruiting body.

Late summer, and buddleia bushes were still flowering, with the flowers still attracting insects. The lower flowers were attracting different species of hoverflies and bees. Butterflies were landing higher up, out of camera range.

Oak mazegill, a bracket fungus, on a fallen log in Bantock Park. Views of both upper and lower surfaces.

The view from below showing the mazy pattern, not gills, of the surface where the spores are relaeased.

The West Park turtle, earlier in the summer. I’ve not seen it for some time, despite looking on warm, sunny days. It disappeared well before they end of summer last year. Maybe it likes to head off early, to find a comforrtable spot in the mud at the bottom of the lake for its winter hibernation.