Birds at Our Feeder

Lots of squabbling at the feeders today with a very large flock of mixed finches attacking the sunflower seeds and each other with a lot of aggression. The Robin sneaks in while they are squabbling. Sunlit, through 3 panes of glass!! I need to work out positioning for a better background.

Paxton's Brackets, Jellies and Crusts

Today I concentrated on some of the young stages of brackets, crust, jellies and other less photographed fungi species today at Paxton. I was pleased to see when IDing the Crystal Brain that it does have the yellow dots seen in the second image - hence its species name 'nucleatum' presumably. Images are either single raw files or jpeg in-camera stacks - I will process some of the raw stacks at some stage!!

 

My Garden Birds

The birds were very busy feeding in the garden this morning with flocks of Goldfinches and Greenfinches visiting the garden feeders and pairs of Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Blackbirds all looking as if they are pairing and starting to set up territories. All three of the Dove family - Rock Doves, Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove, pair of Dunnocks, Robin, Chaffinch, Song Thrush and Wren (too fast to photograph!).. Also visiting in recent weeks Tree Creeper,  Starling, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Redwing, Fieldfare, Jay, Magpie and Pied Wagtail 

I came across my garden list for Jan - Feb  in 1968-71. It had all these except Collared Dove and Stock Dove and also included Bullfinch, Marsh Tit, Turtle Dove, Corn Bunting, Yellow Hammer (still in Hedgerows), Tree Sparrow - all declined or absence with a change in the arable farming techniques.

Toft Garden Mosses

A start on the mosses in the garden - very tentative IDs!!

Toft Wood Lichens and Mosses

Continuing my task of recording Toft's wildlife for our 2025 village project, here a selection of lichens and mosses from the wood with tentative IDs. The final delicate toadstool growing out of a single leaf took my eye when photographing a ground-level moss.

Slime Moulds in Toft Leaf and Log Piles

Amazed at the number of slime moulds that have erupted on the leaves and stalks in my compost area while the logs continue to fruit further specimens. The first three are Didymium squamulosum and the next two Comatrichia species but, the others I need help identifying especially the white lumpy fruiting bodies (now identified as young Didymium squamulosum) and the final species with Collembolids (ID Arcyria spp).