Category: David

Female Carolina duck at rest on a pond. The plumage has a similar pattern, but much more muted colours than the male of this exotic species.

Flower on a decorative artichoke in the cloister garden at Hereford Cathedral, and the developing seed head of another former flower on the same plant.

Grey spotted amanita mushrooms: the spots, the remains of a veil which protects the fungus as it emerges through the soil, had been removed by rain which had also washed out some of the colour from the caps.

These were on a lawn by a main road, a place where they come up at around this time every year.

Flowers beginning to develop on an auracaria (monkey puzzle tree). This tree had branches low down, so the flowers were not far from my eye level.

Russula mushrooms on the lawn in front of a block of flats. One of the several russula species which have pinkish caps like these, some of which have their colours washed out after heavy rain.

A wet August means the fungi flush, peak mushroom season, has started early this year. Shaggy parasols, at a spot where they regularly grow in East Park, had only emerged recently when these pictures were taken.