David

Another splash of October colour from an autumn-flowering plant in a front garden: a clematis tangutica on Richmond Road.

Many brittlestem mushrooms, possibly red edge brittlestem (Psathyrella corrugis) growing on wood chip mulch in Bantock Park. There were a few pleated inkcaps nearby.

As I was in the area anyway, I went for a second look at the collared earth stars on Compton Hill. In the two days since my previous visit, a couple of new fruiting bodies had emerged, looking like they had not yet completely opened. I couldn’t see any signs of change in the fruiting bodies which had already been there.

Magnolia in autumn, buds developing for a second flowering of the year. On a bush in the front garden of a house facing on to Bantock Park.

Nuthatch, tiny, at the base of one of the Nantock Park trees. It had climbed down the trunk, as is their wont, with something in its beak. Perhaps it was a nut. It banged it agaist the roots, two or three times. A pause, then the bird flew off.

Two pleated inkcap mushrooms, tiny and elegant, growing among the wood chip mulch in one of the beds in Bantock Park. These fungi are quite common, but they are often half-hidden, lurking in the short grass which is one of their favoured habitats.