I came upon this immature slime mould, a piece of which I have collected, in the hope of rearing it on to maturity.
On a rotten Alder log was an attractive grey discomycete, which is probably one of the Mollisia and on another log, a pink/purple one, which is probably an Ascocoryne Sp.
Nearby, I found what I at first took to be a colony of old and knackered slime mould bodies, but as I focussed the camera on them, I wondered why they had multiple stems, then realised that they were mites, all happily munching away of whatever that fungus is.
Finally- and there is no photo to accompany this- I went up to the upper viewing platform and after several minutes a Buzzard flew up of the ground onto the top of a Hawthorn tree, around 100 metres up the hill above the platform. After a couple of minutes, it flew off and almost immediately, a small flock of mixed thrushes flew into it and amongst them were at least three adult male Ring Ouzels. I crept up the slope, to halve the distance, so I could make sure (I only had my 8x32 bins) and for a while lost sight of the tree. When I found it again, there wasn't a thrush to be seen, but after around 15 minutes, two Ring Ouzels flew up off the ground into it, closely followed by the third, giving me good views. There may have been others there, but time was getting on and I felt I had done all I could without a scope, so I left. I thought I wasn't going to have RZ this year, so I was well pleased.
That will please Mr Bevan - he and Phil were up there last weekend looking for any Ouzels
ReplyDeleteYes Martin We cannot win them all and some great photos mark and well on the Ring Ouzels.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think there were any there. Apart from that Buzzard and a few tits, it was pretty birdless. They were spending quite a lot of their time on the ground, hidden from view and none of the thrushes were calling at all. Just before I left, I noticed one of the RZ foraging on the turf higher up above the trees. I assumed it was one of the three I saw in the trees, but might have been another. On the one hand, I was glad I took my camera gear to get the macro photos, but wish I could have taken my scope too. I'll have to hire some bearers.
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