Category: David

Japanese umbrella mushroom, peeping out from under fallen leaves.

Egyptian goose by the lake at Wollaton Park. Note the absence of rings, showing it is a wild bird. The only one I saw, though a quick web search indicates there is a small resident breeding population there.

Wollaton Park on the outskirts of Nottingham is noted for fungi, but when I paid a brief visit these proved hard to find. The first I noticed was this rather indeterminate bracket fungus growing on a conifer, itself covered with a penicillin-like mould.

A second red deer stag in Wollaton Park. It was busy eating vegetation in the rough by the thirteenth tee of the gold course. I was on the other side of the fence separating the hoi polloi from the golfers, almost close enough to touch the stag’s flanks. Bothe these single stags will have been losers in the fierce contest for access to the females.

Trees in the avenues and woods of Wollaton Park displaying their autumn colours.

Wollaton Park, the extensive grounds of a stately home a couple of miles from Nottingham city centre. Now a public park famous for its herds of red and fallow deer and for fungi. When I visited earlier this month, the gate had a large red notice warning that it was the rutting season, so beware of the stags.

I wandered round for some time, looking for deer and fungi, failing to see any of either. I had given up and was heading for a look at the Hall, when I came across this red deer stag.