Sunday 20 October 2013

Fun guy seen at Sevenoaks NR

On Saturday 5th October I made a return trip to Sevenoaks Nature Reserve with my mum we met my Auntie there. We ate our picnic then donned our walking boots and went out for a stroll around the lakes which we didn't cover last time. Snipe bog lake is the best name for a lake I have come across! We didn't see any snipe though.

I thought I would try and photograph each different type of fungus that we came across. I only had my long lens with me which meant that it was difficult to get a quick shutter speed as well as a lot of the subject in focus. This meant I had to up the ISO quite a bit so the quality of the images aren't that great, but hopefully you get the idea of the variety of fungi we saw. Some I have managed to identify (possibly wrongly) and as I have been a bit pushed for time recently, most are unidentified.

Any expert fungi identifiers out there (or even non-expert) - Please do comment below if I have made any mistakes or if you know what any of my photos are of! Thank you in advance :)

The first type of fungi we encountered was coral spot - however my photo didn't turn out great so haven't included it. I think we probably saw about 20 different species in the space of a couple of hours. Not bad.

Burnt Polypore

Sulphur tuft?

?

Parasola auricoma

Drab bonnet?

?

We stopped at one of the hides for a little coffee flask break and enjoyed watching this lovely male and female mallard paddling around this lake, covered in seed and leaf litter. The only acceptable type of litter. We also watch some huge fish, a few hawkers and just sat and listened to the rustle of autumnal leaves and coots squawking and making odd noises.


We carried on our lake-side partially wooded walk and came across more interesting fungi and a lovely tufty caterpillar.


Same specimen as photo above... Lilac bonnet?

Dusky Puffball

Parasola auricoma and drab bonnets?

Ruby tiger moth caterpillar

Candle snuff fungus

White dapperling??

Physarum album
We came to another hide - one which we knew a kingfisher had been seen from just earlier. We sat. We waited. Not a king to be seen. We watched a few teal sifting through the green-looking water, and large numbers of Canada geese flying to an adjacent field.

Female Teal

Further on we saw great crested grebes and their stripey-headed chicks that were nearly fully grown.


Water mint




An impressive specimen with birch seeds on top for a finishing touch

Various forms of bracket fungi... again if you have any ideas what they are please let me know :)

We also saw a lovely vocal little robin, plenty of lapwings, some tufties and also a number or cormorants.

I had work at the pub that evening and finished about midnight. By the time I had got to sleep it was 1ish. I then had to be up at 6.15 to head out water vole trapping with Chloe, Row and Pete. It was a beautiful dewy morning which resulted in jewelled spiders webs everywhere. In comparison to our trapping session at Elmley, it wasn't great. Only 2 water voles in 50 traps. This just shows how much help these little critters need our help.

Anyway to end this post here are the couple of early morning misty photos I took.



Thanks for reading :) I hope you are all well and have had a great weekend despite the rain. We managed to get out for dog walks in between showers which was lucky.

The next post will show Bracken's new found love for the sea!

24 comments:

  1. Very cool fungi ~ fun guys :)
    Gorgeous misty morning photos !!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely atmospheric pics Lou. So many wonderful mushies everywhere this year. Also, I like the changes you've made to the appearance of the blog- I'd like the lemons on their boughs as wallpaper at home :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you CT :) I do like to change its appearance with the seasons! I know lemons aren't very Autumnal but I liked it!

      Delete
  3. Love the last two misty morning photos - really atmospheric :)

    Superb selection of fungi and the photos turned out great (I've had problems too if 70-300 lens on camera with taking anything other than birds!!!). Sorry can't help with id - I do have a couple of books and do try to id any I see but my id skills are very poor :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks RR! Yes that was the same lens that I was using. I bought a fungi book from amazon, but it isn't the best. I've had a look at some online ID sites but still struggle a little.

      Delete
  4. HI Lou. Mary Wonderful collection of Fungi I have to admit I do not know any of their names!! Beautiful misty morning shots

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful photos, as always. A great selection of fungi but I'm afraid I can't help with IDs. Love all the birds and your autumn, misty morning pics.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm afraid I can't help as regards the fungi ID's but I really enjoyed looking at your superb pics, the really tiny fungi species especially as I know how hard they can be to photograph in dull light :-) Lovely dawn images to end with as well :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi David, thank you for your kind comment :) It is my mission this autumn to get photographing fungi down to an art!

      Delete
  7. Nice fungi shots Lou. Can't help with ID's but i'm sure you've done a great job, they certainly sound very convincing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You must be exhausted! Love all the shots but my favourites are the last one and the Water Mint - never seen it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Em. It took a while to ID because the photo in one of my books looked quite different. However when I looked in a different book it fit the description perfectly.

      Delete
  9. I know nothing about fungi, so can't help with id's, but love looking at the photos. So sad about the decline of the water vole. We must start trapping the mink to reduce their numbers.
    Love the autumnal images and the new photo on the blog header.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Suzie, I thought the header should be more autumnal! We do have mink traps around us which are checked regularly, but there haven't many trapped as far as I'm aware.

      Delete
  10. Never mind not knowing a few of those fungi Mary Lou, your overall knowledge is very impressive, as is your close-up photography. I have some interesting tree fungi in the garden. I'll post a picture for your expert advice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Phil, you are too kind! I am definitely no expert so will probably not be able to help!

      Delete
  11. Some beautiful fungi photos Lou! It is incredible just how much colour and diversity there is in the most obscure places. Like your P auricoma photos :)
    Look forward to seeing Bracken in the sea! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tom :) I was quite fond of those P auricoma too. We even have a few little patches of fungi in our garden. Bracken had fun in the sea/deep mud again today. He wasn't best pleased about having to be washed when we got home though! x

      Delete
  12. Great images Lou, really like the new image that visitors to the blog first see and the other early morning shot too, the teal makes me chuckle as i like the noise they make when foraging for food. Can't help with mushrooms, haven't got a clue with them, though the images are very good

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Doug, I like to change it every now and again. I was pleased with the look too :) I like the teal foraging noise too!

      Delete