Another type of fungus with fruiting bodies which can be spotted even in the coldest times of winter. Candle snuff grows on dead wood: stumps, fallen branches, and sometimes on buried roots.
It looks at first glance like the wicks of many partly-used candles, either blackened or, as here, whitened and possibly black towards the base.
Candle snuff is a year-round fungus, but I notice it a lot more frequently in the winter, perhaps because it shows more clearly when it isn’t hidden by foliage.
Some of the tufted ducks on the West Park lake this winter. There’s probably thirty to forty which gather over the hard weather each year. But this year, for some reason, they seem overwhelmingly to be male.
Another fungus species with fruiting bodies able to withstand being frozen solid and thawed out again. Velvet shanks are bright orange-yellow, with a surface which looks slimy if it’s wet.
Grows in groups on dead or dying wood; often on stumps or fallen logs. Sometimes on still standing trees.
Quite common throughout the winter. These were in the Paddock, in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve.
Another of the fungi species where the fruiting bodies are resistant to cold and can be found even in the depths of winter. These shaggy scalycaps were growing at the base of one of the trees in West Park.
The heron breeding season starts early, so there’ll be little chance of spotting any away from a heronry while it’s on.
Here are some pictures of herons taken over the past few weeks. Most were taken in West Park, with the bird or birds resting at different places on the islands. One is of a heron on the far bank of the Avon at Stratford.
Winter is a lean time for spotting fungi. The visible parts are the fruiting bodies, and in most species these are very vulnerable to frost.
There are, however, some exceptions which can still be seen.
One such is the jelly ear fungus, with gelatinous flesh which can survive being frozen solid then thawing. They grow on the trunks and branches of (usually) dead or dying trees. Their preferred host is elders, but they can also be found on sycamore, ash, beech among other trees. They’re often at a convenient height which means they can be looked at without too much bending down or stretching up