Amongst the Amanita fungi are those of infamy: Deathcap and Destroying Angel but although there is no ‘not a destroying Angel’ there is this one the False Deathcap which I often find. This from #RSPBBroadwaterWarren on Friday. Amanita citrona. #fungifriends #fungi

Not very exciting but perhaps appropriate for the weather: a Clouded Funnel at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren its species name - Clitocybe nebularis - refers in Latin to clouds and it does look rather cloudy and grey, like today here in the High Weald. #fungifriends #fungi

Amanita muscaria still providing some fungal colour at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren yesterday though sadly without a hookah smoking caterpillar to advise any passing Alice in Wonderland. Not sure whether the caterpillar took a bite on leaving but obviously don’t attempt this at home! #fungifriends #fungi

Birds, mostly heard, at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren today: Blackbird; Bullfinch; Crow; Dunnock; Jay; Goldcrest; Green WP; LT & Great Tit; Pheasant; Robin; Stonechat; Woodlark; Wren @sussexornitholo.bsky.social

Helvella crispa time: having said I haven’t noticed them along our High Weald lane before, though I have seen them elsewhere, yesterday I found White Saddle there just outside our gates. They are somewhat weirdly fascinating. #fungifriends #fungi

Given that winter visitors to Britain travel from Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia they must cover a lot of miles in their long lifetimes.

Super because it is super close - a full moon at its perigee or closest approach to the earth. At this time of year we do have Woodcock coming over to visit us for the winter so handy to have a good light (especially when carrying passengers, though that might only be folklore!).

A leaf-mine on a Sweet Chestnut leaf at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren Possibly caused by a larvae of one of the Tischeria micromoths (not sure I have noticed these mines before). #WildWebsWednesday

A Bonnet on our High Weald lane verge. I don’t know whether this Mycena has bioluminescence as featured recently on Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles but it is delicately pretty enough in the daylight. #fungifriends #fungi

I know about @friendlesschurches.bsky.social through gorgeous paintings @drrjwarren.bsky.social of their befriended and restored churches but today in habitat management news in @britishwildlife.bsky.social as an exemplar for reroofing to retain rare mosses.

Helvella crispa! Actually the first White Saddle I have noticed on my daily stroll (this from today’s) down our High Weald lane, although it is common. #fungifriends

A distant view of a worryingly declining farmland bird: Emberiza citrinella. I spotted 2 Yellowhammer with a flock of Linnet and a sprinkling of Chaffinch in a field hedge at #BoughBeech at the weekend. #kentbirding #ukbirding

Sometimes best to walk by Tricholoma (and why are they ‘knights’?) but this on the verge of our High Weald lane by Birch is likely Birch Knight (Tricholoma fulcrum). #fungifriends #mushroommonday

Guelder-rose down our High Weald lane. Not a rose but a member of the Honeysuckle family and a viburnum (Viburnam opulus) like the Wayfaring-tree which is also an AWI. ‘Guelder’ is apparently after a cultivar developed in that Dutch province a long time ago… @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Receding reservoir at Bough Beech yesterday and distant birds - here can be seen the Greylag majority, plus BHG and a sprinkling of Cormorant. Also around the banks and water: Egyptian & Canada Geese; Grey Heron; GCG; Little Egret; Mallard; Mandarin Duck; Pochard;Teal; Wigeon #kentbirding #ukbirding

False Chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca, at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren attractive and frequent, particularly under Scots Pine and also Birch, both of which are common sylvian features here. #fungifriends #fungifriday

Anas strepera asleep at #RSPBDungeness, resident here (In the 19thC only 1 breeding pair of Gadwall was recorded in Britain but now at least 1000) though more often a winter visitor, perhaps from Iceland or to the NE (they breed as far as the Pacific). #ukbirding #kentbirding

One of the Brittlegills (Russula) at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren seen yesterday: Russula sardonia. Its common name is Primrose Brittlegill which always seems odd but I think to do will gill colour (certainly not cap). #Fungifriends #fungifriday

Well camouflaged - Limnocryptes minimus, the Jack Snipe, a ‘half Snipe’, at #RSPBDungeness at the weekend. If it doesn’t move you don’t see it. A scarce winter visitor. #kentbirding #ukbirding

Dull wet windy today so a reminder of earlier this week: blue sky & berries of Ilex aquifolium. Also know as Holly, Holegn (Anglo-Saxon, perhaps here in East Sussex an original name); cuileann (Gaelic), cuilin (Irish) or celyn (Welsh), as listed by Milner (2011). @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Leaf mines on Burdock (Arctium) spotted by a gate into a field off our High Weald lane around sunset last night. I think a larvae of one of the Phytomyza flies (Phytomyza lappae). #WildWebsWednssday #leafminer

Have you discovered the Kent Nature feed on Blue Sky? Dedicated to wildlife in Kent, UK. Tag your posts with #KentNature to appear in the feed.

Daldinia concentrica, an ascomycete of Ash trees, sometimes called Cramp Balls (L) but I think of them as King Alfred’s Cakes after the legend that on the run from Vikings he distractedly burnt the cakes (R) of a pheasant woman. All these on a single wind-felled Ash in our wood. #fungifriends

Only a quick snap of a Great White Egret Ardea alba at #RSPBDungeness at the weekend but it does show how long their legs are, not always so obvious when they are standing in water or in reedbeds. #kentbirding #ukbirding

Founded as a Local Nature Reserve in 1970 “Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is one of a kind”…

A Pied Wheatear Oenanthe pleschanka - a “Very rare vagrant” - on the cover of my Sussex Bird Report 2024 (arrived on Saturday). Only the second record for Sussex and so far the only one this century! And my first ever (I went to Seaford Head to see it).

Some talk of late that requirements for Lawyer’s Wigs may be eased. Not sure whether this will mean we will only refer to these as Shaggy Inkcap or Coprinus comatus in future. (Found these just down out High Weald lane this morning.) #FungiFriends #fungi

Panurus biarmicus (Bearded Tit or Reedlings) were obliging at #RSPBDungeness on 25/10/25; perhaps 6, with the grit tray in use as they change from mainly invert to seed feeding. @saocousins.bsky.social @drrjwarren.bsky.social #kentbirding #ukbirding

Trooping Funnel Infundibulicybe geotropa - always used to have a few troops in our wood but haven’t come across any this year, these were just down our High Weald lane. #MushroomMonday #FungiFriends

Carline Thistle, Carline vulgaris, posing at RSPBDungenss yesterday in a cottony sort of way specially for #WildflowerHour

Really looking forward to speaking at Kent Wildlife Conference tomorrow about - what else? - urban botany! Will be talking Lobelia, Senecio’s and giant invasive trees! #urbanplants #urbanbotany #pavementplants #concretejungle @kentfieldclub.bsky.social @kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social

Going down our High Weald lane this morning I came across this Meripilus giganteus (Giant Polypore)exploding with excitement at the idea of #WildFungiHour - I decided not to explain this was for grassland Waxcaps in bold colours. #FungiFriends

Beautiful late afternoon at #WallandMarsh 25/10. Some birds present In numbers: Common Gull present in numbers (50+ in one field); Stock Dove (20 in another); Pied Wagtail (17 together); Cattle Egret (12 together); Little Egret (3 in field adjacent to Cattle Egret). #Kentbirding #ukbirding

I don’t know about you but I’ve seen lots of fungi this week, shall we have a #WildFungiHour tomorrow for #WildFlowerHour & celebrate all those wonderful diverse grasslands that ‘flower’ in the autumn too! All the wild blooms that you’ve spotted in the last week are welcome too of course! See ALT ⬇️

Xylaria hypoxylon at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren yesterday looking more perhaps like a clutching elfin hand than a candlestuff that gives this fungus its common name. #fungifriends @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

Amanita muscaria at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren today - I know they are common and easy to identify and may only have a hookah-smoking Caterpillar in “Alice in Wonderland” (though I always look) but they are a very handsome fungi! #FungiFriday #FungiFriends

Ditto that

On a recent walk at #RSPBBroadwaterWarren Amanita citrina (or perhaps, as we approach Halloween, False Deathcap is more appropriate?). #FungiFriday #FungiFriends

Coprinellus micaceus although as usual most of the mica is missing so an Inkcap without its Glistening suffix. Growing on some buried wood in our wood. #FungiFriday #FungiFriends

Aythya ferina, a female Pochard, at #RyeHarbourNR at the weekend. Perhaps one of the resident breeders or more often a winter visitor, the reserve usually has the highest numbers of this diving duck in Sussex so a good place to see them. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #sussexbirding #ukbirding

Blending in - a Herring Gull at the river mouth at #RyeHarbourNR on Saturday (will need a change of plumage to do so today with Storm Benjamin). Larus Argentatus argenteus a “Very common resident” recorded in 58% of Sussex tetrads (Sussex Bird Report 2023). #sussexbirding #ukbirding

Male Wigeon with their rubber-ducky whistles and stand-out plumage are noticed but so too should females with their imaginative plumage shades, stripes and spots. Plenty to see at #RyeHarbourNR. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

Some common leaf mining activity: Phytomyza larvae (either P. spondylii or P. pastinacea) feeding trails on Hogweed easily spotted on a walk along our High Weald lane. #WildWebsWednesday #leafminer

We'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Heathland Birds Survey! 🙌 All remaining survey returns are urgently required, before 30th November, to inform future conservation action. If you need any help submitting your records please email [email protected]. Thank you!

Seen much more Honey Fungus this autumn than previous - stress of long dry conditions (officially drought in parts of Sussex) stressing trees, fungus or both? #fungusfriends

Took a few minutes to see the black bird bobbing in the waves off #RyeHarbourNR as the juvenile version of the gleaming white Gannet seen in Rye Bay or a piano-key immature. Black plumage avoids male nest aggression (Nelson 1978) like a Robin’s spotted. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #ukbirding

Hypholoma lateritium - a tuft of Brick Tuft on a stump in a local wood here in the High Weald. #mushroommonday #Fungufriends

Good Morning Sussex Birders Catch up on the weekly round up over a nice hot cuppa this morning 🫖 Plenty to see still in the coming weeks. Weekly Report: 13-19 October. www.sos.org.uk/recent-sight...

Large white Ciconiiformes at #RyeHarbourNR on 18/9/25 (and a photobombing Wigeon). @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @sussexornitholo.bsky.social #sussexbirding #ukbirding

Good selection of waders at #RyeHarbourNR yesterday: Curlew; Dunlin; Golden, Grey & Ringed Plover; Greenshank; Knot; Lapwing; Little Stint; Oystercatcher; Redshank; Sanderling; Snipe; Turnstone @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @sussexornitholo.bsky.social #sussexbirding #ukbirding