And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low

 The year is getting on and the time is right for searching out those weird and wonderful things that mostly grow at your feet, but sometimes on trees and shrubs. That's right - I'm talking about fungi. 

I think I know the obvious ones such as Ink Cap, Fly Agaric, King Alfred's Cakes and Puffball, and one or two less well known species like Jelly Ear and Scarlet Elf Cup, but there are loads of species and some are so similar I could never separate them for identification purposes. They are so tricksy that they change appearance with age too. This being the case I will never, ever, never, ever, NEVER be tempted to eat one in the wild. 

The closest I get to munching on food picked while I'm walking the beautiful footpaths of the UK is one or two wild blackberries - and then only once I've checked them thoroughly for hidden caterpillars!

These are some photos of fungi taken over the last few days and I am yet to id them. A field guide is on order and it can't arrive soon enough for me.

Coprinopsis sp. I think

This and the two below are the same fungi - no id yet

 

No id yet

The one thing I like about fungi is that they don't move when you approach them with a camera. They don't even move in the wind like most plants do. They are therefore perfect models for photography. All these were taken with my phone camera so you don't even need macro lenses or attachments.

Autumn bird migration is getting on now and we have a few waders still coming through. Common Sandpipers are on first field edge most mornings and yesterday we had a Whimbrel and a Curlew together over KP. This morning a Green Sandpiper was briefly on first field edge, but I didn't manage to see it unfortunately, as my itchy feet carried me away just a few minutes before it arrived. Less vegetation on the water's edge would be good, but this is a sore point with birders locally so I won't say any more here.

I did manage to see the Wheatear that stayed in first field for a few hours today though, flying along the fence line closest to the Mere. 

The Barnacle Geese that arrive each Autumn to overwinter here have arrived. I counted 116 this morning as they fed in the stubble field south of the Mere. There may be more but the field undulates quite a bit and with the geese moving about a count from low down is a bit of a challenge. I started off to walk to a higher piece of ground a field away to get a better view but they took off before I could get there 😂

Hobbies are still here and they are feeding up on dragonflies. There are loads of Migrant Hawkers close to the Mere so there is no shortage of food for them. Swallows and House Martins are also feeding over the water if they fancy something more substantial.

The set aside field is a good place to enjoy butterflies and the planting can still throw up the odd anomaly. I found a Small Tortoiseshell feeding on alfalfa. Never having seen alfalfa before I had to look it up.

Small Tortoiseshell on alfalfa

Also in the set aside field I found a moth feeding, which I think is a Silver Y? Moths are similar to fungi as far as I'm concerned, and are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a brown and greyish enigma - with appropriate apologies to Winston Churchill.

Silver Y perhaps?

Which brings me nicely to the title of this post, which is taken from the lyrics of a famous, some may say infamous, song by Jefferson Airplane. White Rabbit is a fantastic song but is too short, lasting only 2:32, and was released in 1967 on the album Surrealistic Pillow. If you've read Lewis Carroll's Alice novels then you'll recognise all the characters in the song.