Speckled wood butterfly from head on

Speckled wood butterfly from head on

Male speckled wood butterflies take a woodland glade (or in this case a garden with lots of trees and bushes) as their territory. When another male tries to butt in, they get quite determined in seeing it off.

I thought this picture of one seen from head on gave a more accurate portait of their aggressiveness that the more commonly shown wings outstretched resting pose.

Changes in scrambled egg fungus

Scrambled egg fungus

Scrambled egg fungus (it has other, less appetizing names) is supposedly a fairly common fungus, though I have never noticed it before this summer.

Scrambled egg fungus

It grows on tree stumps and other dead wood – those shown here are on wood mulch.

Scrambled egg fungus

Once it appears, its appearance changes rapidly over the course of a day or so. It starts off the pale yellow colour which gets it the “scrambled egg” monicker.

Scrambled egg fungus

It then fades to a white which soon develops a dirty-looking brown, grey or black surface.

Scrambled egg fungus

Bank of thistledown, Barley Field

Bank of thistledown

The thistles in this large patch were setting off their seeds into the breeze. This was the only picture from a series which actually managed to show one of the seeds heading off.

The thistle patch was in the top corner of the Smestow Valley Reserve’s Barley Field.