Category: David

The Egyptian goose, on-off resident at West Park recently, raising its wings slightly to make its body look bigger. It was in the midst of a crowd of other geese (some greylags, but mostly Canadas) which had been jostling for bread.

False saffron milk cap mushrooms growing on a lawn: these fruiting bodies had been out for some time so they had turned a green / blue colour. Grow only in association with conifers. Like all milk caps, they exude a “milk” when damaged; in this species it is a bright red fluid.

Vivid autumnal colours of a Japanese acer in the rockery at the side of Bantock House.

Immature (or still in eclipse plumage) shoveller drake, swimming in a tight circle as it feeds, shovelling with its beak, on West Park lake. Further from the shore, another drake with its showier feathers.

Some of the fly agarics growing under a beech hedge in Bantock Park recently. These distinctive mushrooms usually grow in association with birch trees. Although there were birch trees close by, but these fungi were definitely asscoiated with the beech instead.

Young heron on a bough of a dead and fallen tree, looking over from boating lake island towards the Conservatory.