Friday 25 September 2015

Dragons and toadstools

Our walk today was much like the post below. A bright dry day in the first official week of autumn. The spots of sunlight were still drawing in a few dragonflies, although some of them were looking a little ragged now.  I also kept an eye out on the floor for the fungi. There has definitely been a little surge over the past week or so and I found a lovely patch of fairy ink caps on an old log. It took a bit of nettle dodging (not entirely successful!) to get into a position where I could photograph them but I managed to get a few decent shots.









Friday 11 September 2015

All about the dragonflies

Our walk in the local woodland this afternoon was beautifully warm. Rose hips, sloes, and hawthorn berries brightened up the hedgerows and we did think to take a bag to collect some blackberries on the way round.  There weren't tons available, some had already been picked and some were not not ripe or even formed, but we gathered enough for an apple and blackberry pie.  Walking through the wood, in the patches of sunlight there were quite a few dragonflies flitting about, a few resting long enough for me to get some photos. 











Sunday 6 September 2015

Seasonal slump

August and early September always feel a bit slow where nature is concerned. This is especially so if the temperatures are low and the insects aren't around. In the bird world the summer visitors are leaving, the winter ones haven't quite arrived yet and the locals have gone into hiding! Our walks are very quiet but if you look carefully there are still things to see. Conkers, blackberries, sloes and rose hips are dripping from branches, mushrooms are starting to appear and if the sun comes out the dragonflies and butterflies still take to the air. The cooler nights are bringing dewey mornings with slugs and snails and misty sunrises. Soon the leaves will start to change and the days shorten and nature will be back on its mission to survive another winter.

Amber Snail (Succunea putris) Fen Drayton Lakes, Cambridgeshire, UK

Friday 4 September 2015

Fabulous fungi

I really love autumn. The colours, the crispness, the chance to wrap up warm but still feel the sun, and walking in the autumn always gives me lots to photograph. I have to remember to not only look upwards at the beautiful leaves but also down on the damp floor for the fungi. I started photographing fungi a few years ago and it is always challenging – sprawling on the floor or contorting into small spaces between dead branches – but once I started noticing these sometimes tiny little strange mushrooms and toadstools I was hooked!

This is one of the first I have seen this year.  There will be more!