Beckett Park woodland

We stayed close to home this weekend and went on a wander through Beckett Park woodland. Under the beech & oak canopies wood pigeon and squirrels busied themselves. Stepping into the woodland our first spot was this Treecreeper.

Not such a good pic but its characteristic outline is more apparent here.

Other bird sightings included a pair of Jays on the edges of the woodland, and in the wooded area just behind Queenswood Drive we caught the side profile of the Great Spotted Woodpecker on its favourite tree trunk, no pics of either birds though.

Plenty more fungi at this time of year. On this fallen deciduous trunk was an abundance of what I think is Honey Fungus, Armillaria medea. Growing in clusters & individually.

Here's one found lying on the ground nearby, you can see the fruitbodies are joined together at the base.

Wavy mature caps & well spaced gills.

Another illustration of the joined fruitbodies.

A second cluster growing at the top of the trunk.

A third cluster growing under the trunk.

Elsewhere in the woods, I found these small black fungi. I wonder whether this is Urnula craterium before it opens, it has a black coal-like exterior & was growing at the base of this dead deciduous tree.

Common Earthball, Scleroderma citrinum growing amongst deciduous leaf litter.