Fungi Day October 10th at Paxton Pits

 We were very pleased with the large turnout for the two  Fungi walks today led by Alan Robbins from the Huntingdonshire Fugus Group in the morning and afternoon. As everywhere else, the hot dry conditions have not encouraged fungal growth and fruiting though the recent rain has encouraged a few fruiting bodies to show above ground. Most of our finds were brackets attached to trees etc. Of the others, the favourite was definitely the Fluted Birds Nest Fungi

Paxton Pits October

Ellie requested seeing a Kingfisher on her visit to Paxton Pits today - request fulfilled plus the bonus of two sitting together for a time (too far into the leaves and branches to capture on the camera) and one of them capturing a large fish which it banged on a branch (unfortunately behind a lot of foliage) before swallowing. We also managed several duck species and a Great Crested Grebe teaching its humbug youngster what to do with a fish after capturing it - not a very successful lesson so the adult ate the fish. Very cute Blue tit and flying Swan and Grey Heron completed the sightings.

Toft Garden October

The decaying leaves and stems in my compost heap are covered in these slime moulds - Didymium sp, (?nigripes) - hoping to find more species so keep looking!! Otherwise invertebrate numbers are now very low apart from the wonderful Long-nosed Weevils on the Hollyhocks, the numerous Hairy Shieldbugs, several spider species including Pisaura mirabilis, a couple of hoverfly species and other flies.

Paxton Eclipse Ducks

Many of the ducks are in eclipse plumage. Ducks moult all their flight feathers at once, and so for a month are unable to fly and are very vulnerable to predators. So the males moult and replace their bright body feathers by duller brown ones, much like the females. They will display this eclipse plumage for a few weeks or months depending on the species of duck, before another second moult occurs when the male will once again grow back his full colours. One way of distinguishing the species is to look for the speculum (coloured patch on wings) so the Teal in first images is showing the green speculum while the Mallard has just a glimpse of the blue speculum. No problem with identifying the Shovellers with their beak and the black-bottomed Gadwall.

Flying Displays - Wasps and Red Arrows

I took my telephoto lens up Toft Drift to watch and photograph the Red Arrow display over at Duxford Airshow. While waiting I noticed a Wasp nest in the ploughed field by the path and set about recording their flight and nest building skills - quite large chunks of mud and stones were being flown in and the walls build. At the end of the show the Red arrows returned to their base low right over our heads!! The Wasps were definitely quieter!