I was really surprised to find a Great Willow Aphid whilst sieving leaf litter at Clophill Lakes NR yesterday. Apparently they can be quite active this time of year - mainly on the tree, I guess - but disappear from April to June when no one has discovered where they go! Leaf litter perhaps?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... In 2024 I spent a day in Margaret’s company on an Alchemilla workshop where she climbed over a 5-bar gate and was up and down on her knees demonstrating various plant features. In the afternoon I held her hand as we walked beside the River Tees. What an amazing woman!

A wonderful suite of winter-flying moths on the Clophill Lakes NR visitor centre: Spring Usher, Winter Moth & Early Moth.

When I prepared for Saturday’s New Year Plant Hunt at Clophill Lakes NR I thought that 15 species of flowering plants would be our maximum total, so I was amazed (and a tad alarmed) to record 28 species with 25 people present. Field Penny-cress, Thyme-leaved Speedwell and Musk Mallow pictured here.

My son, John, really wanted to experience the weird and wonderful Starfish Fungus at Oxshott Common in Surrey. Work prevented a day visit, so we went down at night: crazy, but fun. The fruiting fungi are going over now but a single egg is showing promise!

Following the visit to West Cowes Cemetery I took the chain-link ferry across the river in order to visit East Cowes Cemetery where this beauty was waiting for me: Podoscypha multizonata 😃

Clavulinopsis umbrinella under Cedar in Northwood Cemetery, West Cowes, Isle of Wight this morning

Pterula multifida, a birthday gift at Parkhurst Forest, Isle of Wight 😃

It was nice to catch up with one of the Clophill Lakes Otters this afternoon, if briefly!

Wow, wow, wow: Mycena pseudocorticola and, finally, Mycena meliigena, occurring together on moss-covered oak branches in quantity (this is just a small section). A friend spent years looking for M. meliigina every time she came across M. pseudocorticola! [Rushmere CP, Bucks]

Piggyback Rosegill (Volvariella surrecta) on Clouded Funnel near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, today.

Some nice fungi on today’s Bucks Fungus Group foray: Violet Webcap, Olive Oysterling and Toothed Jelly Fungus (The Webcap was picked up from another site on the way).

2 weird, wonderful and rare fungus species from the BMS Autumn Foray: Squamanita paradoxa taking over the fruiting body of its host, and Hypomyces leoticola growing from the base of its ‘Jelly Babies’ host (the slimy green ‘tongue’)!

Clavaria zollingeri (Violet Coral), my 2001st fungus species, but the one that I was most hoping to catch up with during my time in Scotland . Turns out it was on the lawn of the estate where we are staying…it also turns out that it should be called Clavaria violaceopulchre as zollingeri is in Java!

The hall that we’re working in for the British Mycological Society’s Autumn Foray in Dumfries is cavernous!!

First evening at the BMS’s Autumn Foray based in Dumfries and the signs are already promising with lots of species of fungi just outside the front door of the lab. We were also treated to a show-and-tell by Thomas Lassoe

It was a privilege to be a part of the #UKFungus day at College Lakes NR and to see the passion of the Bucks Fungus Group members and the enthusiasm of those visiting

A mystery Bolete from Pullingshill Wood, Marlow, that’s causing some excitement. It will be DNA-sequenced and, hopefully, the species will be revealed!

An amazing foray in Pullingshill Wood, Bucks, this morning, including Rubroboletus rhodoxanthus and possible Suillelus mendax

It was a privilege to spend a day with the renowned Libby Houston in the Avon Gorge, especially under her special Hornbeam: Sorbus x houstoniae

Chuffed to have just found a Shieldbug species new to Bedfordshire: Southern Green Shieldbug at Clophill Lakes NR

It looks like an Arrhenia that I found during the BMS's 2024 Autumn Foray may be new for Britain: Arrhenia glauca [Yew Tree Brake Cemetery, Cinderford]

Boletus satanus - Satan’s Bolete - at last!!😅

Black-footed Polypore, Rooting Shank and a frog at Clophill Lakes this afternoon!

Subclytia rotundiventris - a Tachinid fly at Clophill Lakes this afternoon

The best photo I can get of Sorbus proctoriana - I think it’s the only known one in the world! (Avon Gorge)

Cinnamon Bracket at Clophill Lakes NR…..and a Common Lizard on a football!😅

I returned to try to obtain a specimen of the Stomaphis quercus aphids. Even at gone 10.30pm the ants (Lasius fuliginosus) were extremely protective, swarming up my soft forceps whenever they had the chance. I finally got hold of one: look at that rostrum!! The last photo is Alan Outen’s

If you come across a column of 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 it’s always worth following them to see where they may lead….in this case the rare Great Oak Aphid (Stomaphis quercus), though they’re hard to make out amongst the hundreds of frenzied ants!😃

Hymenopellis radicata demonstrating why it’s called ‘Rooting Shank’ in Ampthill Park this morning!😃

Our friends took us to their allotment today to show us their spectacular Maize Smut. It was also nice to catch up with some beautifully flowering Treacle Mustard.

This Morophaga choragella moth was on the wall above our bed as we turned in last night. I notice that it's called the Large Clothes Moth on iRecord. I didn't tell Carole that!😅 It's more correctly called the Great Fungus Moth elsewhere, the larvae feeding within bracket fungi.

Large White larvae on wild Garlic Mustard plants. The mustard oil glucosides in the leaves give them a bitter taste that dissuades potential predators from eating them. Garlic Mustard is the only Cabbage family plant to smell of Garlic…maybe that takes the sting off the taste for a hungry Sparrow!😃

My first Deathcap (Amanita phalloides) of the year growing on the wooded verge outside our home

When you feel something crawling on the back of your hand and look down to find what turns out to be one of the UK’s rarest Sawflies mistaking you for a Willow leaf it’s helpful to be standing a few feet away from a local and national Sawfly Recorder: the beautiful Arge enodis (Clophill Lakes, Beds)

It was nice to see half a dozen or so Alder Sawflies (Eriocampa ovata) out and about this afternoon. One of my favourites.

I’m always a bit nervous when I get Hornets in the moth trap: 7 last night, which I potted up after they had calmed down. Here are a few of them after being released in the early hours. They really are pretty awesome creatures!

This Cinnamon Bug in our Ampthill garden this afternoon brought back memories of the first Bedfordshire specimen that I found at Duck End NR in Maulden 19 years ago!😃

Volucella inanis enjoying the Oregano at the Kings Arms Garden, Ampthill.

It’s been an amazing weekend in Kent with species including the mega-rare Orange-shouldered Blister Beetle (posted previously) and, yesterday, the back from extinction Maidstone Bee (Andrena polita) - a last video that demonstrates how I found the Sheerness Scorpions using UV light. Incredible!!

Really pleased with my first Alder Kitten last night trapping on the coast with the BENHS (2 of us!) at The Strand, Medway, Kent

Sitaris muralis (Orange-shouldered Blister Beetles) at East Malling, Kent, on an Anthophora plumipes (Hairy-footed Flower Bee) nesting wall.

Finally caught up with the Yellow-legged Scorpions 🦂 at Sheerness 😃

Edelweiss and Yellow Gentian close together high above St Moritz

I was so pleased to catch up with this Lunar Hornet Clearwing at Clophill Lakes

The Orange-tip caterpillars are growing well on the Garlic Mustard …and the Dock Beetle larvae are in the process of decimating their foodplant!

Yesterday’s Orchid-fest: Monkey Orchid, Military Orchid, Fly Orchid and Bird’s-nest Orchid

A parasitised Brimstone butterfly caterpillar, and the subsequent pupa of the parasitoid, Hyposoter rhodocerae, at College Lake NR, Tring

10+ very active Noble Chafers today at a private orchard , together with frass and exit signs

A Red-tipped Clearwing basking in the late afternoon sunshine with a Bittern booming the other side of the hedge…bliss! [Marston Vale CP, Bedfordshire]