Sunday 18 October 2009

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.

3 comments:

  1. Wonder if your Jays were they same I spotted a couple of weeks back! Nice to see the Woodpecker and Treecreeper too, the Treecreepers are great birds to watch.
    The pics of the fungi are great (something I never thought i'd say :-) ) but they do look quite amazing!
    Pam

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  2. Hello Pam, maybe they were the same pair, Ive only seen a single Jay around Beckett Park prior to this & was v pleased to see the two together. They were creating quite a racket.

    Ha ha (re the fungi) I know what you mean! This time of year is good for fungi, & they provide additional interest whilst out wandering. The easiest way to photograph them is to set your compact digi camera onto macro setting & snap away, its worth giving it a try. Fallen tree trunks are a good place to start.
    Thanks for your comments. Linda

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  3. What a wonderful collection of toadstools. I fear I have missed the best of them this autumn. And your treecreeper picture is outstanding - they are the most difficult bird to photograph because they're hardly ever still. Many congratulations.

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