Warm Sunshine Brings out the Insects etc

 Yesterday's and this morning's warm sunshine brought many insects and spiders out of hibernation in the garden and on the hunt for food and mates. Here are a few portraits and an ID sheet.

Slime and Other Moulds

Warm and sunny 'spring' day today so lots of insects active in the garden - too many to sort this evening so here some other subjects taken in the bright sunlight - two slime moulds Didymium and Lamproderma species and two fungal species - I think these are Lasiosphaeria ovina and Neodasyscypha species. I was using a 1.4 extender on my 90mm macro lens but cannot focus stack as I need to update the firmware on my quite old camera (the camera predates the lens!)

Paxton Pits Changeable Light

 Yesterday afternoon, I spent an hour watching the Herons and Cormorants busy collecting nesting material and various other water birds while the light changed from bright sunshine to heavy rain and then a rainbow. 

Life in the Compost Bin

The wet and warm weather recently has encouraged a mass of slime moulds in my compost bin. I brought in a Ground Ivy plant and a few Silver Birch leaves that are coated in fruiting bodies. I think the two species evident in the third shot are Lamproderma scintillans and Didymium squamulosum which are Barry Webb says are often found in the same habitat at the same time (to be checked).

Slime Moulds and Fungi

A selection of Slime Moulds and Fungi found in a small wood in Cambridgeshire on fallen trees including Beech. There is one very small toadstool that I can't even guess what it might be. I suspect there may be some corrections to several others!