Category: David

Orange seeds with a bright pink cover, the distinctive fruits of a spindle tree. These were by the Railway Walk, opposite Cupcake Lane at Newbridge.

Birch polypores, otherwise known as razor strop fungus. Back in the days of straight-edged razors, these could be used to maintain the sharp edge of a razor needed for a close shave. Growing on the fallen trunk of a birch tree, almost certainly brought down after the fungal infection had rotted away its strength.

Two sets of swans with their cygnets by the Sow at Stafford. One family by the river as it emerges from the flooded Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve; the other family resting on manicured grass on the bank as the river is about to pass through Victoria Park.

Little Japanese umbrella mushroom on its thin stem, doing what it can to overshadow the short grass it is growing among.

Autumn is the peak season for fungi, sometimes called the funi flush, especially a damp autumn like we are having this year. One of the species which is doing quite well, as it often does, is lawyer’s wig, alias shaggy inkcaps or more formally Coprinus comatus. They are large enough to be noticeable – the caps two to four inches tall or occasionally more.

I visited the Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve in Stafford last month, only to find the recent persistent heavy rains and overflowing sections of the River Sow had converted it into something more like the Doxey lake. There probably were ways round the water obstacles, but after a while I gave up trying to find them. Included among the consolation pictures I did manage to get were these views of a small flight of Canada geese moving to a different spot on the reserve.