Holme Fen in late autumn

Holme Fen has always struck me as a place that should be excellent for fungi, but somehow my expectations have never been fulfilled - I probably just go at the wrong time, After a moderately successful trip to Southey Wood my hopes were high - but alas, as usual, fungi were rather few and far between. However, one species that caught my eye was the tinder bracket on birch - nicely lit by the afternoon sun. This species is quite rare in Cambridgeshire according to the NBN, with Holme Fen (the largest birchwood in lowland Britain), unsurprisingly, its main location.

Tinder bracket Fomes fomentarius

The second type of fungus that stood out was a small, and rather delicate, pale lilac mushroom. The two fungus books we have at home had nothing quite like it, so I tried searching the internet, and came up with a tentative identification of Mycena pura, which seems to have been recorded from quite a few sites in the Peterborough area.

Mycena pura?

A surprising number of invertebrates were still around, including thousands of birch catkin bugs Kleidocerys resedae, presumably seeking hibernation sites, as well as quite a few hawthorn shieldbugs and dock bugs.

Dock bug Coreus marginatus

Hawthorn shieldbug Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale

And the day ended, with the proverbial dark cloud with a silver lining!

Fungi - at last!

Southey Wood is usually one of the best places around Peterborough for fungi, partly because it has both acid and calcareous soils and a wide range of broadleaved and coniferous trees. It is one of the very few places where fly agaric can be regularly found, associated with birch trees near the entrance. However, like everywhere else this autumn, the warm, very dry weather had prevented development of fruiting bodies. Yesterday, for the first time, there were actually a few fungi, though still nothing like the normal numbers. Where possible I have tried to name them, but not being a mycologist, I accept that the names may be wrong!

Mycena sp. among beech leaves

A poison-pie Hebeloma leucosarx (This one had a very slimy cap.)

An oyster mushroom Pleurotus sp.

Calocera cornea

Clitocybe geotropa

Fly agaric Amanita muscaria

Aspen Populus tremula leaf

Walk by the river

Autumn has properly set in now, with the first heavy rain for ages having swept through on the 1st November. Today I enjoyed being snuggled up in my scarf and gloves as I walked along the river in a bracing westerly wind - a change from the very mild weather we have had up till now. Although the wind was cool, it was quite warm in the sunshine, and there were already signs of spring to come in the sprouting seedlings of cleavers, as well as echoes of summer past with butterflies and wasps basking in the golden sunshine and gorging themselves on ivy nectar. But the sights, scent and sounds of autumn dominated, with the gleaming black berries of wild privet, fungi sprouting from the old willows, bullfinches and long-tailed tits calling and the carpets of fallen leaves everywhere.

Seedlings of cleavers Galium aparine

A rather late hogweed flower Heracleum sphondylium

A very tattered peacock basking on the path

A rather sleepy wasp on a birch leaf

The characteristic bark of white poplar Populus alba

A polypore fungus on willow

Berries of wild privet Ligustrum vulgare

A snowberry cultivar

Mixed autumn leaves - cherry, field maple, hawthorn

Autumn at Ferry Meadows

For various reasons the last two months or so have been very busy, leaving me little time for photography or blogging. However, things have settled down a bit now, so I thought I would gradually try and travel back in time - and perhaps eventually catch up with late summer. Over the past week or so I have been trying to capture some of the beautiful autumn colours around Peterborough.

Morning light in sycamore woodland

Guelder rose Viburnum opulus

Wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana

Autumn at Crown Lakes

Thursday was the most perfect autumn day - the colours glowed in the warm afternoon sunshine and the plantings at Crown Lake country park provided a myriad of hues.

Dogwood Cornus sanguinea

Pedunculate oak Quercus robur

Wild cherry Prunus avium

Guelder rose Viburnum opulus

Guelder rose - again!

Sloes Prunus spinosa - so velvety blue

Burghley Park

Alex's sixteenth birthday was the excuse for an afternoon visit to Burghley Park. The sun shone unrelentingly us as we explored the Garden of Surprises, complete with fountains, caves and a mirror maze.

Alex in the mirror maze

After a rapid tour round the Sculpture Garden we headed out into the park with the dogs, stopping frequently to admire the grazing fallow deer who seemed completely indifferent to us. The deer were rutting, and many of the stags were roaring in the golden autumn sun. The mistletoe, a particular feature of many of the old lime trees, is still doing well and we managed to find some relatively low down to photograph.

Mistletoe Viscum album

Fallow deer stag

Privet hawk-moth caterpillar

It's just that time of year when large caterpillars crawl along cycleways looking for a place to pupate. Pete came across this privet hawk moth caterpillar last week, wandering along a Peterborough cycleway, so rescued it and brought it home for the boys to see. We carefully released it in a quiet corner of the garden, where it can bury itself in the soil with no danger of being dug up during the winter.

Privet hawk-moth caterpillar Sphinx ligustri