What have you seen
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I can't match that for a close-up, however this long distance shot is of hundreds of Greylags feeding in a horse paddock by the drowned quarry between the site and the nearby cement works. To view fully you will need to expand it!! I also saw what I think was a Whimbrel flying over.
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Unlikely to be a Whimbrel @nelliethehooker as they tend to be early migrators and tend to travel in flocks. More likely to be a juvenile Curlew if you were thinking it had a shorter beak but you could well be right and it was a late Whimbrel.
When we were at Burton last week everyone, many of them local, were surprised at how many Canada Geese flew onto one the larger pools. Their numbers may very well be larger due to many offspring. All the Geese seem to have had a good breeding season. We even saw 12 Egyptian Geese there, 10 more than normal so your sighting of the Greylags bears out the assumption of a good season for them.
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I bow to your superior knowledge of birds @Wherenext and there are definitely Curlews around here. As you suggested it was the dark shorter curved beak that drew my attention.
There were numerous large skiens of Geese passing southwards this morning. During our walk this afternoon by the shore at Dunbar we saw Gannets and Cormorants, Eider Ducks and a female Merganser, and along the shoreline lots of small waders, Dunlin and Sanderling I think, plus a Wheatear on the washed-up seaweed, plus passing through a Skua I think. In the harbour we watched a few Harbour Seals, one being attacked by Herring Gulls.
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We came across this fallen Beech tree during our walk today in Binning Wood, and looking at the cut surface of the trunk these fungi must have a rapid growth. I think they are either Porcelain Fingus, Mucidula mucilage or Spindle Toughshank, Gymnopus fusipea.
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There's a YT I intend watching later that concentrates on Autumn fungi so I'll keep an eye out for those Nellie
I've been watching Betelguese tonight as it pulsates with a red hue. It's supposed to go Supernova anytime (which in astronomical terms has a totally different meaning to what I consider) now.
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Thanks, hope the YT helps with identification @Wherenext.
Here is today's sighting, on the ground close to the tenting area at Beecraigs. I think it is Common Rustgill - Gymnopilus penetrans
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It is definitely the right time of the year up here for them. There are quite a number of different varieties but many are small and in dark, awkward places to photo. However this one stood out. I think it is a Pestle Puffball, Lycoperdon excipuliforme, but I must check again tomorrow to be sure. I don't want to pick it to look underneath the cap, but it should be sticking up higher by then, but it's habitat looks right.
There are still a fair number of Butterflies about, and this one posed nicely for its photo.
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As a follow-up to yesterday's post the photo was definitely of a Pestle Puffball, having checked it out this afternoon. Unfortunately someone, or possibly a dog, has now split it from it's stem.
Today's one below is a Peppery Bolete, Boletus/Chalciporus piperatus, and can be dried and ground and used as a pepper like condiment.
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@Wherenext I think you would find the wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide web site interesting, which is what I am using to identify the fungus I see.
Saw this one yesterday and think it is either Giant Funnel, Aspropaxiluus giantess or Fleecy Milk cap, Lactifluus vellereus.
We also saw all 3 types of deer that are present in the estate at Hoptoun, and this is the best photo I could get of some of the Red Deer herd.
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A rather unusual Sweet Chestnut in Balbirnie Park
Found these presents on the caravan site but have having trouble identifying their variety. I think they are a type of Bolete but not at all sure which.
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Finally got to see some fungi of our own yesterday, albeit a Common Puffball. Wifi kept going in and out last night so left it to today.
Had a good few days of watching waders on the estuary. Plenty of Pink Footed Geese, Curlews etc plus an added bonus of a Slovenian Grebe on West Kirby marine lake. Also had 2 competing Tawny Owls nearby at night.
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I spotted this beauty in my garden earlier.
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I’ve no idea and I’m not about to find out the hard way😀
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I think it is basic Parasol mushroom, Macrolepiota procera, and if so it has a great taste.
This is the link to the web site I have been using. https://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guide/parasol/
It will work, or it did for me, if you click on the link.
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Cheers, Nellie.
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There have been a couple of large flocks of small brown birds on the fields in front of the site. It took a while to decided what they were...female Chaffinches. I don't ever remember seeing them it such large flocks before.
Down in the harbour at Maidens were 4 juvenile Cormorants fishing up close to the launchway along with a Red-Breasted Merganser, with Curlew and Oystercatchers on the tidal line.
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Today's fungi I think is Sulphur Tuft, Hypholoma fasciculare. This large number were on a tree stump in the woods at Culzean.
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Very pleased to see a flight of around 8 Long Tailed Tits at the top of the drive down to the site this afternoon.
I need a bit of help identifying this Fungi. I think it is either a Ruby Bolete - Hortiboletus Rubellus ( although it's location doesn't match that in the literature) or it could be Plums and Custard- Tricholomopsis rutilans which occurs around rotting conifer trees.
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Yesterday at Isle of Whithorn watched a Kestral devouring it's lunch, and spotted a male Stonechat and then Gannet flew by close into shore. Today there were quite a lot of Little Egrets out on the machars at Wigtown, and Brent Geese, along with gulls and Mallards, feeding on the foreshore where the burn flowed out, at Garlieston.
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Some of the fungi that we have spotted over the last couple of days. I have still to identify them properly.
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Another new mushroom seen today, on a dead bitch tree, in the wood above the CL. I did think it might have been Dryad's Saddle, but that has a stem whereas this one is a bracket fungus of some sort.
Edit. On a second look through my references I think it is Birch Polyphore, Fomitopsis betulina
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I swear this appeared in my garden overnight.
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It is👍🏻. It’s clever the way it blends in with the fallen leaves.
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