David

Violet crust fungus, showing where the delicate violet colour fades with age. On the same felled tree at Bantock Park as the black bulgar in a post yesterday.

A misty morning recently, with heavy dew. I was taken with this spider’s web, covering the skeletal remains of a dock plant like a tent.

A carrion crow assiduously pecking at some very finely crumbled bread which had been left out for birds at the foot of a tree.

Black bulgar which was growing on a tree felled by the tiny pond, Bantock Park. It had been growing quite high on the tree, possibly not visible from the ground before the felling. A few days after these pictures were taken, so was the felled wood – only a very low stump now remains.

Collared earth stars growing by the footpath along the Penk at Perton.

I took these shots on two visits, a week and a half of so apart. No visible signs of change in the fungi between these two occasions, other than a sharp drop in number. On my first visit there had been eight or nine. Second visit (last five pics) this was down to two. I doubt it was vandalism – the fungi are quite inconspicuous.

The mist that morning had only been light, and was already beginning to rise. Still, it slightly muted the autumn colours of the leaves of the trees along the canal where Tunstall Water Bridge carries the Smestow Brook across the canal.