I mentioned unseasonal warm spells in my last post and that is exactly what we had today. Glorious sunshine and a maximum temperature of around 16°C. This brought out huge numbers of Common Wasp again, swarming all over any ivy that still had flowers. Speaking of flowers, surprisingly there are still a few Common Rock Rose (Helianthemum nummularium) clinging on.

I concentrated on the leaf litter in the woodland areas and apart from spotting several wolf spiders of the family Lycosidae, like last week possibly the species Pardosa amentata, and a single adult Birch Catkin Bug, the main focus was on fungi. The Birch Catkin Bug was seen on a bramble, some leaves of which carried the long vacated leaf mines of the larva of the Shining Bramble Dot moth (Stigmella splendidissimella).

I have just acquired a light ring for my cameras to make photographing in the dimness of the woodland interior somewhat easier and was keen to test it out. I will leave it to you to decide whether it was a good decision or not once you have seen today’s fungus gallery.

I added one further mushroom back out on the common in bright sunshine with no need to use the light ring.

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