Wolves Wild

One of several species of mushrooms which depends on a symbiotic relationship with a birch tree, so is only found immediately near birches.

The rich reds of the berries and greens of the leaves: it can only be holly. The upper picture also has a small inconspicuous cricket – it’s on the upper edge of the leaf below the berries.

When they are fully out, earth stars look like some kind of alien flower.

At an earlier stage, their relationshop to puffballs is more obvious.

This mushroom had obviously already provided a good meal for something.

Milk caps are a group of mushroom species which exude a fluid when damaged. In some of these species the fluid resembles milk in colour and consistency. In other species the colour is different, or changes gradually on exposure to air.

This small flock of gulls frequent the playing fields of Compton Park when there is little human disturbance. Most are black headed gulls, but the juvenile, with what looks like mainly grey feathers, is a different species, probably lesser black backed.

This mushroom always grows in symbiosis with … a larch tree.

The cap of this mushroom is a more or less gelatinous cinnamon yellow-brown when it first emerges, with somewhat paler stem and gills. It then turns black.

The rim of the cap of this one gives some hint of the richness of the original colour.

Autumn is the peak time for fungi, so that’s why they are dominating the posts at the moment.

The panther cap is not a particularly common mushroom, but this one was growing right by a canal bank near Compton.

This specimen seems to have proved a reliable food source for something small in the way of the local wildlife. All pictures are of the same individual. The top two are views from the side and top; the lowest picture was taken a couple of days earlier as the toadstool emerged, already nibbled at.

The steep angle of the cap of this toadstool gives it a funnel shape.