Frozen Mosses and Toadstools Hardwick Wood

A very cold night left ice on all the Mosses and Toadstools in Hardwick Wood which quickly melted as the morning sunshine reached them.

Lichens

 Been experimenting a bit with lichen photography - these are with full-spectrum camera which demonstrates some of the colours etc that invertebrates might be seeing with their different sensitivity  to us to the various wavelengths of light. Only the yellow/orange colours stood out to my eye - others were dull grey.

Gulls Catching Flies

The Black-headed Gulls were busy catching flies from the surface of the water making very elogant shapes against the dark water. The Grey Heron just looked grumpy.

Raindrops on Flowers

Spent a short while in the garden yesterday photographing some of the flowers still in bloom and berries covered in droplets. I was using an old manual Olympus lens which gives very gentle backgrounds and seemed to suit the low light conditions. I need to be a bit more careful with my focusing however.

 

Unusually Warm Day Encourages Garden Minilife

Unusually warm today - 18degrees at midday with very little wind brought out  a lot of insects, spiders etc including this Beetle Larva, Harlequin ladybird and various other insects. Spiders were also on the move and I think the white 'mushrooms' are spiders egg sacs. Even a small Geometrid caterpillar feeding on the Knapweed.

 

Sandy Slime Moulds and Fungi under UV light

 We spent a lot of time searching for Slime Moulds and eventually found first Physaurum album and then a new one for me, Craterium minutum. As the light faded, I added a bit of colour with the UV touch - always impressive how differently different species react to UV light.