Bramhope and Weardley

On Sunday afternoon, on the way from Goldenacre Park out to Weardley we spotted 8 Red Kites in the skies above us, this one settled in the treetops, just long enough to grab a couple of pics. Nearby a female Kestrel surveyed the adjacent field and swooped down behind the hawthorn hedgerow into the field, presumably in pursuit of Sunday dinner.

A couple of miles away near Goldenacre Park we passed a field of Fieldfare, over 100 in number, with approximately 20 Starlings amongst the flock. We parked up to get a better view and count the numbers, here's approximately one fifth of the flock.

In the distance you can see Leeds Bradford Airport, the planes visible to the left of the picture.

Although last year's Fieldfare sightings in Park Square, Leeds City Centre gave us better views, I'd never seen quite as many in one flock. Seems like a good opportunity to dust off one of the Fieldfare pics that we took last year.

In fields nearby we noticed that Lapwing have returned in good numbers 2 x 50+ plus a big flock of Pink Footed Geese 80+.

I also noticed four bracket fungi growing on a deciduous trunk which I think is Daedaleopsis confragosa  (Blushing Bracket). A common fungi found all year round, with pores on the underside, Roger Phillips' Mushrooms describes its upper surface as "radially wrinkled and concentrically ridged" which sums it up nicely.  

As if Sunday's sightings weren't enough to keep me going through the week, on my way back into work at lunchtime, out of the corner of my eye I spotted a movement in the laurel hedgerow, expecting a Robin or a Dunnock I was surprised to see a Goldcrest, just the ticket to get me through a Monday afternoon.



Queenswood fungi

On a walk around Queenswood I found a cluster of eyecatching Flammulina velutipes 'Velvet Foot' growing on a tree stump. The pumpkin coloured convex caps flatten out with age, its one of few mushrooms to appear in winter.  

Beckett Park

Shaggy Ink Cap

Growing in the grassland near Headingley Train Station these Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus). I enjoyed Phil Gates (Cabinet of Curiosities) post from last year about the Carnivorous Inkcap which is well worth a read. 

Here are two more from a cluster of five that I found growing amongst brambles on the edge of a copse on Beckett Park. They're great illustrations of how the cap shrinks as it gradually dissolves itself releasing a black inky substance which contains the spores.

What a stinker!

This week I discovered the aptly named Stinkhorn fungi (Phallus impudicus) found on campus near the Victorian Monument on the edges of Queens Wood, amongst leaf litter and clipped rhododendrons in dappled shade. The unpleasant odour, one smelt never forgotten, alerts you to its presence before setting eyes on it.

The above pic shows how it looked 24 hours after emerging from the initial egg-like structure (below). I'd read how quickly they grow, so returned the next day to check on its progress. Surprisingly it had grown to full size and the insects of the manor had busily removed all of the spores, quick work!

The fruitbody begins as an egg-like structure from which the stalk grows rapidly, the stalk tip is covered in a stinky slimy spore mass known as the gleba. This thoroughly malodorous slime is what attracts the flies, who ingest and cover themselves in the substance to deposit the spores elsewhere. The fungi examples I found the slime has already been removed revealing the pale off-white honeycombed top.

 

Here's the spot where I found it, in a cleared verge in dappled shade amongst rhododendrons. Unfortunately I managed to crack my head on the diagonal branch which wasn't quite what I had in mind for a lunchtime fungi foray but luckily I have a resonably dense head so no damage was incurred.

Here are two more spotted in the vicinity earlier in the week, with a minimum of spores still visible.

 

Fungi Friday - Post Hill, Pudsey

A few more fungi from last Sunday's visit to Post Hill Wood, Pudsey, a Leeds City Council designated Leeds Nature Area. Its a steep sloping area of birch and oak woodland rising up between Pudsey and Farsley with marshland at the base adjoining Pudsey Beck. It has an interesting history, in 1926 it was opened as an area for motorcycle sport, where it was named after the Yorkshire Evening Post, and it continues to be used by West Leeds Motor Club. Apparently during WW2 it was the site of an anti aircraft post and a POW camp.

As well as the scarlet red Fly Agaric we found a few more fungi, such as this  damaged Earthball (Scleroderma) which was worth a snap, it was surprisingly weighty & covered in a tough scaly skin.   

A cluster of cap and stem fungi growing underneath Hawthorn and birch.

A purple tinged cap and stem fungi growing amongst leaf litter under a Hawthorn

Growing in clusters through dense leaf litter, Common Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum), their surface is covered with tiny spines that wear away as they mature. The darker area is where the pores develop and the spores released. 

Finishing with a splash of colour, Stag Horn fungus (Colocera viscosa), bright orange-yellow tiny fungus, 2-3cm tall, growing through moss on a conifer stump.

Post Hill is worth a visit, if you do go I recommend clambering to the top of the hill where the views are worth the effort. Leeds Countryside Volunteers Newsletter pdf (1.8Mb) includes an article on Post Hill.  

Super Fly Agaric

The Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) is one of the most recognisable British toadstools. This weekend I found a few at various stages of development and it was interesting to note the variations in both form and colour. Post Hill, Pudsey and Goldenacre Park both offered some great examples.

When they emerge, the young are rounded and covered by the universal veil, like the one above. These two have suffered a bit of slug damage but it provides a useful view through the surface layers. The white patches on the cap are remnants of the universal veil.

The bright scarlet caps start to flatten out as they mature, the colouration gradually turning to a more orange hue. The white patches gradually wash away over time. These next two grew on a patch of steep grassland near birches, and overall I counted 5 in this spot.

The gills are large and white, and the spores have a white print, the universal veil is visible on the underside. 

Elsewhere at Spot Hill, two more mature Fly Agaric on the fringes of a patch of bracken, the green fronds provide a lovely contrast to the spotted scarlet caps.

At Goldenacre Park this parched looking Fly Agaric grew directly under the canopy of a Birch, the flattened cap and orange colour suggests a mature fruitbody, the remaining white patches may be a result of the cover provided by the canopy overhead.  

The roots of the fly agaric have a symbiotic relationship with a variety of trees, pine, spruce, fir and birch, attaching themselves to tree roots to siphon off nutrients in a way that does not damage the tree.

Beckett Park

Having been offline for a few weeks, I'm please to report that I'm back up and running and here's a few recent sightings from Beckett Park. Lots more fungi have started to appear on the grassland and in the woodland, here's a wee selection.

Grasses left unmown underneath the canopy of a Common Beech. 

This week I spotted 4 Speckled Wood butterflies on the woodland perimeter of Queens Wood and despite having only the little camera, managed to get near enough for a couple of pics.

On the way into work, near the train station I discovered this feather (pictured). The black ground colour and white spotted margins suggested a Great Spotted Woodpecker. After wandering around the web and I came across Michel Klemann's website Feathers, which is a really useful resource. Here's the link to the Great Spotted Woodpecker page. The first illustration, Example 1 Leftwing (primaries and secondaries), confirmed my initial guess and left me feeling pretty pleased with myself.


Ive heard a Woodpecker a few times in the vicinity of St Stephen's churchyard & the opposite side of the road between the old alloments and the railway track, so I'm going to pay a little more attention as its only a minute or so from home.  

Even closer to home, last night, from the doorstep, we watched a bat fly above the back gardens at approx. 7.30pm. Having attended a couple of bat walks at Rodley Nature Reserve I'm pretty confident it was a Pipistrelle, and its the first time Ive seen it this year. If I kept such a thing as a list of garden sightings I'd stick it at the top of my list.

Dersingham Bog

This is the last of my posts from our trip to Norfolk, on the homeward leg of our journey where we stopped at Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve. An interesting landscape of mire, heathland and deciduous and coniferous woodland. The reserve was mentioned in Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain as a good spot for dragonlflies and we did see Common Darters and Southern Hawkers but what caught my attention the most were the numbers of orange topped cap and stem fungi.

A Small Copper

A great end to a really fantastic trip, made all the more enjoyable by the availability of online information provided by the websites of  Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Leicestershire and Rutland's Wildlife Trust and the wonders of satnav.

Spout Hills, Holt, Norfolk

The town of Holt, North Norfolk provided another interesting stop off point, and after a cup of coffee and a wander round the town centre we explored the area known as Spout Hills, awash with late summer colour. The area is managed green space just outside of Holt which used to provide the town with its water supply.

When the sun broke through there was an abundance of butterflies, Painted Ladies, Green Veined Whites, Small Coppers and Common Blues.

And lots of fungi amongst the bracken and grassland.

Later that evening on the way back from Cley Next the Sea, after having watched a Barn Owl on the reserve where it as too dark for a pic we spotted this owl on the telegraph wires, a Little Owl perhaps? With a little gap in the clouds light we managed a quick pic from the car.

Beckett Park fungi (2)

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Ive noticed a large number of fungi on Beckett Park this week. With so many pics I decided to make up a few composites featured here.

Dotted around the edges of this tree stump (used creatively by students as a barbecue area) are the fruitbodies of Giant Polypore and inside a small cluster of cup fungi.

From this point on and with so many examples Ive struggled to identify them, although I think bottom left and top right might be a Blusher.

I like the pic on the right in particular as I noticed the jogger heading into the frame as I knelt down to take the photo.

More views of the Blusher fungi posted previously.