Fungi Finds

After a hideous fungus was elected president of the United States today I decided it would be a good time to do a special post on various fungi I've seen lately.

First up, here's the most familiar looking fungus of them all, a fly agaric.

As the red colour suggests it wouldn't be very pleasant to eat. It would be unlikely to kill you but could give you severe stomach cramps and is hallucinogenic.

Here's my favourite recent fungi finds because of how impressive it looks. These are common puffballs.

These are young fungi- puffballs start off this shiny white and gradually become a brown colour over time. They have distinctive apical pores, the holes on the top which are where they 'puff' out their spores, hence the name.

This one is a poorer picture but that's often the nature of fungi. I like how they grow in quiet, dark and damp places where most people wouldn't even notice them. Now I've got into looking at fungi I've started to get used to the sort of places they are likely to be growing in. This is a shaggy parasol (Chlorophyllum rhacodes).

This edible fungus was reclassified in 2003. Given it's similar appearance it was thought to be related to the Parasol but thanks to DNA Analysis it was moved to a completely different genus, Chlorophyllum.

This next one is a bracket fungus, a member of the Coriolaceae family. I suspect it's a Red-belted bracket but I'm not confident on that identification.

Brackets grow on trees rather than sprout out of the ground and their spores develop underneath. I found this in a small local memorial park on a dead tree which goes to show you can find fungi anywhere.

A slightly more confident ID, although only slightly, are these little fungi in amongst leaf litter which I have concluded are probably milky bonnets. We tend to think of fungi as fairly sizeable but actually the majority are tiny- you can see how small these ones are compared to the oak leaves.

Another intriguing thing about fungi is that they are so hard to identify. I just bought an excellent book (Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools) which is fantastic but even with that I have still seen plenty that I can't identify. What on Earth are these?

I shall conclude today with a few favorite fungi that I've shared here before.

This is the fantastic sulphur tuft which appeared in the garden. It doesn't look as great as this now as it has blackened significantly.

This is a Shaggy Inkcap, a stunning fungus which I found right next to the path at Blashford Lakes.

Here's a really vivid coloured bracket fungus, a beefsteak fungus. It's called that because it looks like beef and is sometimes used as a beef substitute.

And finally my favourite fungus I've seen so far, the brilliantly named chicken of the woods.

Walter White

I just have to open today with what my well be my bird of the year, a Great White Egret!

Now usually I can't tell you too much about an individual bird but this one has a full history. He's affectionately known as Walter White, after the character from Breaking Bad. I saw him over at Blashford Lakes where he has been a Winter visitor every year since 2003. He was ringed as a chick in a nest in Lac de Grand-Lieu near Nantes in France that year. This makes him 13 which is a ripe old age for a great white egret but he is still looking magnificent.

I've found myself at Blashford Lakes more and more often recently. It's a fantastic nature reserve and at this time of year there is always something to see. Here's a grey heron which was perched only a little way in front of one of the hides.

Although the Woodland Hide is perhaps less exciting at this time of year you sometimes get lucky and see some more unusual visitors. This nuthatch was feeding on and off for the whole time I was in the hide on my last visit.

I was also lucky to see a jay on one of the feeders. Jays are one of the birds which I have personally noticed the decline of. They were a relatively common bird a few years ago but now you hardly ever see them which is a shame as they are the most beautiful corvid we have.

It's a big time of year for deer as the males are rutting, fighting off competitors in order to breed with the females. My experience of this is limited but I did see a few roe deer by the Avon recently. I suspect this is a young stag with a small harem, separate from the main harem which is likely to be held by a larger, older stag. There's also the possibility that the stag and the two hinds are very young and therefore not concerned about breeding yet. You can see the relatively large antler for a roe deer and the real strength in the stag's muscles.

A couple of birds I somehow haven't yet mentioned here now. On my visit to Stanpit in Christchurch last week I saw plenty of oystercatchers feeding on the shoreline.

Not too far away from here, on a small stream passing through woodland, was this Grey Wagtail.

I actually see a grey wagtail quite regularly at a stream on the entrance to Blashford Lakes. I've never been able to capture that one clearly though because it flutters away as soon as I spot it and because they like covered streams it's so dark it's hard to get a photo from any distance.

I've seen some fantastic spider webs covered in the morning dew recently- it really makes you appreciate their intricacy when you can see them this clearly.

Here's what I suspect might well be my last butterfly sighting of the year, a red admiral. This was on the 30th October but I haven't seen any this week and we had our first frost on Wednesday night so it now seems unlikely, though not impossible, that I'll see any in November.

Finally, here's a red slug.

You can clearly see a large hole in the side of this individual. At first I thought it was damage caused by a predator but after some research I discovered it is actually it's pneumostome. It's a breathing pore which air goes through and into the slug's single lung, a mantle cavity. I like to think of it as the slug equivalent of blow hole in a whale. It's an interesting piece of biology which I had no idea about until I saw this slug!

Autumn Migration

Today I've got something of a migration special as I'm sharing various birds I've seen that may have migrated here in recent weeks.

First of all, it's a fantastic time of year for blackbirds as they can be seen (and heard) finding berries to eat.

There suddenly seems to be more blackbirds around. I suppose this is partly due to the fact they are more visible as they feed but actually there are now more blackbirds than there were over the summer. Blackbirds are actually migratory birds and whilst many are resident to an area all year round some do migrate. They migrate from Scandinavia and more Northern parts of Britain so they can have a milder Winter. Living here in the South of England means this is the area where the blackbirds come to spend the Winter.

Another bird which is less well-known to be migratory is the cormorant. A growing number are arriving at Blashford Lakes, like this young individual.

Like blackbirds many cormorants are resident here but some do migrate and arrive down South for the Winter.

Yet another partial migrant is the stonechat. I've seen lots of these throughout the summer in the New Forest which would suggest there's a fairly large resident population there.

I've also started to notice stonechats in lots of other places too. Whilst males are easy to identify the females are fairly plain and on several occasions now I've thought I've seen a more unusual bird but eventually realised it's another stonechat. I saw this one at Stanpit Marsh on Christchurch Harbour yesterday.

There are now lots of shovelers in the area and numbers have grown considerably over the last few weeks. I only seemed to see females to start with but have now seen a few gorgeous males.

There seems to be lots of redshank around at the moment too. Again, many redshank are resident but huge numbers come down from Iceland for the Winter. They look magnificent with their bright legs.

Another bird whose numbers have increased significantly are little egrets. When I went to Stanpit Marsh yesterday they were everywhere. There's a fair few resident these days anyway but many more have joined them for the Winter from the continent. I think you'd be unlucky to go to a stretch of water locally and not see at least one.

I think I've only ever seen one treecreeper before so I was really pleased to spot this individual on an oak tree by the River Avon today. Treecreepers do leave their breeding territories in Autumn which might explain where this one came from. I don't think there are usually many at all in the area.

Obviously grey squirrels do not migrate but they are a lot more visible at this time of year. As Winter approaches they are seen much more often on the ground as they collect fallen nuts and acorns. I've realised just how huge the grey squirrel population must be, especially in parks around the Bournemouth area.

We'll end like we began with a member of the thrush family, this time the robin. Like blackbirds we consider robins resident birds as we see them all around but plenty do migrate South. Everywhere you look there are robins at the moment. They are a rare bird in that they sing all year round so everywhere I go I am hearing beautiful robin song at the moment.

I've not seen any unusual migrants this year yet but there are some around- a waxwing was seen not far away last weekend. It's still amazing to see these tiny birds that may have travelled hundreds if not thousands of miles to enjoy the relatively mild winter we get round here.

Bird Bonanza

Last weekend I visited Lymington-Keyhaven Nature Reserve and was delighted to find it teeming with bird life. There were a few species I see all the time but are still lovely to watch like black headed gulls and little egrets.

But actually the majority of species I saw were ones which I don't usually get to see. First up were some little plovers plodding around looking for food.

In the same area were lots of sanderlings, also having a feed.

There were a few lapwings around too, though most of them were looking pretty sleepy.

I took that photo for the lapwing but it was only upon closer inspection that I realised the ducks were more interesting than they appeared from a distance. It's difficult to see when they are so tucked up but you can just make out that they are in fact teals.

The most magnificent bird of the day was this stunning bar-tailed godwit. It's a really beautiful bird.

Even that though wasn't the most exciting spot of the day- that accolade goes to this wheatear.

I've never seen one before and was lucky to see several on what may well have been one of the last days they were around before migrating South.

Whilst I'm on the subject of birds I don't usually see, we had an unheard of visitor to our garden this week. We've lived in this house for 19 years now so getting new bird species these days is extremely unusual. I was surprised to see this female pheasant poking around the garden when I came home from work one day.

It was a surprise because we live in quite a built-up suburban area and even in the farmland not too far away pheasants are pretty unusual. We had some really heavy rain earlier in the day so I am theorising that this pheasant was driven to go somewhere more sheltered and perhaps was struggling to feed on water-logged land where it usually goes.

Something else which has also appeared in our garden recently are these great Sulphur Tuft mushrooms. We've had fairy ring mushrooms on the lawn before but these are new and they look great. They also seem to be proving popular with our resident slugs which is why some of them look a little chewed.

It still seems plausible that I may see a butterfly in November this year. There's still plenty around- I saw both speckled woods and a large white today and a rather battered looking red admiral at Lymington-Keyhaven last weekend.

I even saw a dragonfly today which goes to show that the weather is still proving fairly mild. This is a very dark female common darter.

It's interesting to see that Autumn is so late this year. The leaves have taken long to start to change colour and drop off too. Other than a couple of days of very heavy rain it's been very dry and though it is certainly colder now it's actually relatively mild- I don't think it has dropped below 4° at night yet. A longer summer must be a good thing for the majority of wildlife- the shorter the winter the higher number of individual animals will survive.

I Believe in Zoo

You may have seen the recent news of gorilla Kumbuka escaping from his enclosure at London Zoo. The male Western Silverback got out into a secure keeper’s area and was quickly tranquilised. The public was never in danger and the situation seemed to have dealt with very well by the London Zoo staff.

The events have led to an organisation called the Born Free Foundation releasing a statement saying “it could have ended very differently” and was a “startling reminder” of the risks of keeping wild animals in captivity. The organisation wants to see zoos phased out, something which I disagree with.

In terms of their opinion of the events of the London Zoo incident, it seems frankly wrong. It was extremely unlikely that it would ever have ended any differently thanks to the zoo’s safety procedures. The animal never escaped into a public area, the public were evacuated quickly and the gorilla was tranquilized and moved back to his enclosure remarkably quickly. It seems clear to me that London Zoo has clear safety procedures which it followed efficiently.

There is a debate to be had about intelligent animals being kept in captivity. You’ve probably seen Blackfish after all. But I do believe that even the most intelligent animals can be kept happily in captivity if treated well. It relies on the zoos really understanding the animal and being able to provide it with the environment it needs- both the physical space and fulfil its leisure and social needs- but I think it can be done.

I think zoos are really important for many reasons. For a start, they can encourage a love of the environment, particularly in children, that few other things can manage. That love of the environment is vitally important. If we want to save the endangered animals across the world we need a world where people care about animals and I think zoos really do this.

Zoos also provide an important service in education. On a basic level this is signs and guided tours which tell visitors more about the animals. But many zoos provide special education systems for schools which teach children about conservation in a practical way. As part of their conservation programs some zoos also educate local people about animals which can really have a positive effect.

Those conservation programs do a lot of good work. Profits from most large zoos go directly to conservation programs which help save the very animals people are seeing in front of them. The zoos often have breeding programs which can breed new animals to be released into the wild. This can be effective because it can increase the genetic pool of a species. These breeding programs are also important to ensure rare species don’t die out. In a worst case scenario a species like the tiger could go extinct in the wild but be saved thanks to tigers being bred in captivity.

Plenty of zoos work as rescue centres too. Many of their animals are ones which have been rescued, be that from injured individuals in the wild or those illegally kept in the pet trade. These animals could never be released in the wild but can be kept happily alive in a zoo.

Things need to be done better, I concede, but zoos still have an important role to play. They have moved on, here in the UK at least, to simply being places for entertainment but now educate and lead conservation projects. If the Born Free Foundation really wants to help animals they should be helping zoos to achieve these aims rather than criticising and trying to eliminate them.

Arne in Autumn

Last weekend I visited RSPB’s Arne Reserve, located on the West side of Poole Harbour. It was a gloriously sunny day and really busy on the reserve- I suspect due to the fact that it has been announced the reserve will be the location of the BBC’s Autumnwatch later this month.

I saw plenty of Sika Deer on the reserve. You may remember I saw the same species on my recent visit to Brownsea Island and these deer actually originate from that population, having swam/walked across the shallow harbour.

You can see that the latter has an ear tag and what I think is a radio collar, presumably to keep track of the population and how far it has spread.

I saw plenty of butterflies on the reserve, mostly speckled woods and red admirals but also a peacock.

I also saw both the first two today, the 15th October! It seems that butterflies are flying very late this year and with little sign that the temperature will drop significantly over the next week or so I suspect we may even get the odd butterfly still flying in November but we will have to see!

On the bird front Arne was a little disappointing I have to say. I saw this Little Egret near one of the beaches amongst a bunch of gulls.

Arne has a two-level hide which I was most excited by. On entering the higher level I quickly concluded that the reason it was so high is that the birds are a long way from the hide. I spotted a few spoonbills around and a shelduck.

Today I visited Blashford Lakes and had a great time. Two weeks I was over the moon that I had finally managed to photograph a kingfisher. I was lucky to manage that feat again today as a kingfisher obligingly sat on the edge of the lake cleaning for a good half an hour.

It kept diving into the water and then kept cleaning itself which was really enjoyable to watch.

A few other spots on the lakes: a pochard, a little grebe and some lapwings.

In terms of fungus I saw some stunning Shaggy Ink Caps.

I managed to see a demonstration of just some of the natural variation of Harlequin Ladybirds.

I have seen lots of hornets lately, mostly on ivy flowers. Frustratingly they always seem to visit the flowers at the top of the bush, away from most of the wasps, bees and flies, and are therefore very tricky to photograph. I saw one today on some leaf litter so got a clear view. They are remarkable creatures so watch.