Earth star

After last week's giant puffball, here is another puffball, this time in the local nature reserve.  This rounded earth star (Geastrum saccatum) appeared this week.  The outer layer has pulled back to reveal the spore-bearing central fruiting body.

Giant puffball

This was a surprise finding in the garden a few weeks ago - a giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea).  I have never seen one here before - they are usually found in meadows, fields and deciduous forests.  It is about 180mm in diameter and appeared in a path beside the pond which was dressed with bark chippings, so I wonder if that is how the spores arrived.  Giant puffballs are good to eat when fresh but my gastronomic advisors, Cherry & John, thought it was past its best by the time I found it so I left it alone.

I have been keeping an eye on it and it has gradually turned brown and the splits in the surface have widened.

Here is how it looks this week - a bit like a mouldy artisan sourdough loaf.

I read that each giant puffball contains about seven trillion spores and that if they all produced mushrooms within two years they would occupy 800 times the volume of the earth.  Fortunately they don't but if one or two do I may be able to try one next year.

A walk round the pond - week 39

I expect the heron is disappointed every time I turn up because it has to move on.  It usually watches to see if I climb over the gate before flying off.  It is probably after frogs etc as I don't think there are fish in the ponds - one reason why they are so good for dragonflies.

The autumn equinox has seen a change in the weather with windy sunny days and cool nights and there is a distinctly autumnal feel in the air.  The dragonfly season seems to have turned as well.  For the first time since week 18 I saw no damselflies and there were only three species of dragonfly.  The one I was most pleased to find was this female migrant hawker.  She was resting low down in the thistles to keep out of the wind.

I saw several males but fewer than last week.

There were still plenty of mating common darters

and several male ruddy darters.

I haven't written much about birds recently as there has been less to say.  Little grebes, moorhens and coots are still present but rarely seen.  I generally hear or see buzzards, bullfinches, yellowhammers, goldfinches, long-tailed tits and willow warblers each week but this week there were no swallows or martins so I expect they have headed south.

I have seen lots of small coppers this week.  Their iridescent orange colours are dazzling in the sunshine.

Other butterflies this week were speckled wood, red admiral, peacock, small white, and this comma.

On a dog rose in one of the hedges I found a Robin's pincushion.  It is a gall caused by a solitary wasp, Diplolepsis rosae, which lays its eggs in a rose leaf bud.  The grubs develop inside the gall and will emerge next spring.  They are produced parthenogenetically and >99% are female.

Several small mushrooms have appeared this week.  I think they are conical waxcaps, Hygrocybe conica, also known as witch's hats.  Wikipedia says their edibility is uncertain.  The flesh apparently turns black when cut, which my friend Maria tells me is not a good sign.  I read recently that all mushrooms are edible, but some only once!

Sulphur tuft

I don't know the names of many fungi but I enjoy photographing them.  I am grateful to my pal Brian Rutter for identifying this one as sulphur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare).

End of year favourites - Gosforth Nature Reserve

I have been spending more and more time in Gosforth Nature Reserve, which is run by the Natural History Society of Northumberland.  Much of the time is spent in working parties and helping with teaching, etc, but I do also get time to go in and watch the wildlife.  It is amazing to think that all these creatures are so close to my home, only a mile away as the sparrowhawk flies.  Here are a few photos from 2017.

The turquoise elfcup

I came across this fungus in the woods last week when we were clearing another patch of woodland in the reserve for replanting.

I think it is Chlorociboria aeruginascens, the turquoise elfcup but it could be the very closely related Chlorociboria aeruginosa, the green elfcup(!).  It is a saprophytic fungus and these fruiting bodies are a few mm across.

The mycelium stains the wood blue as seen in these photos.

The blue-stained wood was used in marquetry in the 15th century in Italy and in the similar Tunbridge ware in England in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Fairy rings

I came across a group of fairy rings in the spruce plantation in Gosforth Park Nature Reserve.  There are several up to 10m in diameter but none is quite complete.  This was the best I could find.

Others made less than a complete circle.

I'm not sure what kind of mushrooms they are.  They look tasty enough but I didn't try them.  One possibility is Clitocybe nebularis (clouded agaric) which often makes fairy rings.

Fairy rings have been thought to be magical places.  In France they are ronds de sorciers (sorcerer's rings) and in Germany Hexenringe (witches' rings), both of which sound rather more sinister.  You can read more about fairy rings here.

Ganoderma australe

Ganoderma australe (syn. Ganoderma adspersum) is the southern bracket fungus and lives on hardwoods, such as this splendid beech in Gosforth Park.

The underside is white when the fruiting body is young but becomes browner after release of the spores, as here.

This a woody fungus which has pores rather than gills (known as a polypore).  It lives for many years and has growth rings like a tree.  The shrivelled older parts of the fungus can be seen above the newer layers, as shown here. Ganoderma means shining skin although it doesn't look very shiny here.  (Australe means southern, not Australian.)

The annual growth rings show the fungus is getting larger each year.

Here is a close up view of the underside showing the pores and where some of the cinnamon-coloured spores have fallen on to the bark of the tree.