A lone fly agaric mushroom in Bantock Park, possibly the last one which is likely to emerge this year. A wedge had somehow been removed from the cap, reminding me of a pizza from which one slice had been taken.
Colours of autumn – two herons, West Park
Two herons on the same island on West Park lake. Both were on the same side of the island, getting the full benefit of the morning sun.
The bird in the willow tree had already been in a similar spot a few times in the previous weeks, but I hadn’t seen the one on the ground before.
Colours of autumn – sloes
Ripe sloes on a blackthorn bush, which also had a healthy growth of lichens along the branches.
Autumn fungi flush – whitish bracket fungus
A white bracket fungus growing prolifically on a fallen tree in a wooded area of the Stratford on Avon Recreation Ground.
Colours of autumn – medlars galore
Medlars, high on the tree in the public gardens by the parish church in Stratford on Avon. All the lower fruit had fallen, and were bletting on the ground.
Bletting, and the Shakespeare connections of medlars, are explained here.
Autumn fungi flush – cramp balls on a fallen log
Cramp balls – presumably they were thought to cure the condition, not cause it – are sometimes also called the coal fungus, of King Alfred’s cakes. They are quite common, as the variant names hints. Whatever their medicinal properties, the dried fungi were used as tinder when starting fires by rubbing sticks or bashing stones together.
It’s my chestnut
A squirrel in the riverside gardens by the chain ferry in Stratford on Avon, looking really determined that nothing was going to part it from the chestnut it was carrying.
Autumn fungi flush – fungus on an old willow
The Stratford upon Avon Local Nature Reserve again – actually the car park at the town centre end of the reserve. The car park has some old and gnarled willows on its margin. Growing on one of the willows, climbing up the trunk and the boughs, were these mushrooms, Although they rare distinctive, I’m not sure what species they are.
Colours of autumn – liquidambar, Bancroft Gardens, Stratford
A row of liquidambar planted on the approaches to the theatre in Stratford on Avon make their most dramatic show in early November. They had lost quite a lot more of their leaves the day after these pictures were taken.
Autumn fungi flush – honey fungus at base of a willow
Honey fungus growing ay and near the base of a willow tree. In a few years, the tree will need to be felled before it crashes down in a winter gale: the fungus is eating it from within.