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.
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Autumn fungi flush – yellow fieldcaps
These yellow fieldcaps were growing under a huge spreading willow tree, a little further along the footpath from the mushrooms in the previous couple of days’ posts.
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All on a roof
Pigeons cover the roof of a building by the Tramway Bridge across the river in Stratford on Avon, with gulls lining up on the ridge of the roof behind. They’re all in position to spot the moment that anyone on the riverbank scatters seed on the ground to feed the birds.
A white wagtail dashing round, hunting after insects. Bancroft Gardens by the river in Stratford on Avon is evidently good hunting grounds for wagtails. There’s often one or a pair hunting there. It’s also one of the two places with the majority of tourists wandering round: the other is by Shakespeare’s birthplace, also a wagtail hotspot.
These must both be such good hunting spots that the birds don’t fly off unless someone gets really close. So it’s possible to get near enough to picture them.
Sulfur tuft fungi, which were growing on the same pile of wood chip mulch as the hare’s foot inkcaps (previous post). A very common mushroom of the autumn ant through to the winter, usually growing on tree stumps.
A newly-emerged hare’s foot inkcap looks a bit like a hare’s foot. Then the stem extends, the cap flattens then turns somewhat concave before disintegrating to release the spores. Within twenty four hours it’s all over: the mushroom is gone.
These were growing on wood chip mulch by the Avon in Stratford. On the few occasions I’ve ever seen this mushroom (in various locations around Wolverhampton), it’s always been on wood chip mulch. Apparently that’s the best place to look.