Garden Wildlife 2014

[Mark Griffiths]

fab fungus there! I found an Oak Beauty in the moth trap this morning.

[GordonT]

Lovely pics Gordon. Peregrine is a stunning bird., occasionally spotted here too

Thank you Matt, they aren't all that common in Nova Scotia. There was a re-introduction scheme about twenty or so years ago, that seems to have done well, although Peregrines are still an "at risk" species.
Someone who was looking at our photos noticed that "our" bird appeared to have leg bands. We haven't been able to read the bands but learned that the bird was banded somewhere in the eastern United States.

[Anthony Darby]

fab fungus there! I found an Oak Beauty in the moth trap this morning.

Nice male. Quite early. I did once have one in the trap in Callander in April, but that would have been 40 years ago, and I never saw another. The fungus could be Laccaria amethystina.

[johnralphcarpenter]

The fungus could be Laccaria amethystina.

I was going to suggest that - Amethyst Deceiver, but on steroids!

[GordonT]

Does anyone think it might be a wood blewit (Clitocybe nuda, aka Lepista nuda or Tricholoma nudum)?

[johnralphcarpenter]

Does anyone think it might be a wood blewit (Clitocybe nuda, aka Lepista nuda or Tricholoma nudum)?

Wrong colour I think.

[ichristie]

Hello, thanks for the suggestions so far but I do not think any are correct keep looking, cheers Ian the Christie kind

[David Nicholson]

Looks a bit like an old umbrella someone has chucked in the garden to me!

[Matt T]

Hi Ian,

I've consulted with a fungus boffin I know, sending him your pic and he's replied with the following advice. Hope this helps:

"Hmm...interesting. Definitely a mushroom. I think it is most likely Wood Blewit (Lepista nuda). Hard to tell for sure though without the specimen. Wood Blewit starts off purple then turns brownish and paler with age, which I think I can see in the photo. It also grows fairly frequently in gardens. It should have finished fruiting in early winter, but this year has been so mild lots of autumn fungi are popping up here and there. Perhaps a cold snap messed up this mushroom's development?"

[Anthony Darby]

You'll notice that the wood blewit should uniform crowded gills. This doesn't, but then it is quite variable: www.naturephoto-cz.com/wood-blewit-photo-12801.html

[Anthony Darby]

Here's a job I fancy - well, in another life. http://butterfly-conservation.org/56/jobs.html

[Maggi Young]

You'll notice that the wood blewit should uniform crowded gills. This doesn't, but then it is quite variable: http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/lepista-nuda-photo_lat-12801.html

Link doesn't work, Anthony.

[Anthony Darby]

Copy and paste annoyingly added http:// to the URL so I removed it. Should work now.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Can anyone identify this little fellow?

[Maggi Young]

Not an old lady in a fur coat who has fallen over, I take it?