Waxcap round-up

I can, with a lot of difficulty identify most of the waxcaps I find here at The Beeches. I can also more or less manage the corals and spindles as they are limited in number and quite distinctive. The rest of the grassland fungi are more or less a mystery to me. I do look through the books but rarely do I get a conclusive ID. A book which just contained the 100 most common species found on old grassland would be a boon I'm sure but there doesn't seem to be one. Anyway I have been checking on the waxcaps seen this year and of the eleven species that we have here that I feel reasonably confident about the ID of, I have seen nine this year. The exceptions are the Parrot Waxcap (Hygrocybe psittacina) which I only found once in 2011 and the Scarlet Waxcap (H. coccinea) which has been plentiful ever since we moved in but has not appeared yet this year strangely. The nine that have appeared so far this year are Blackening Waxcap (H. conica), Meadow Waxcap (H. pratense), Butter Waxcap (H. ceracea), Golden Waxcap (H. chlorophana), Spangle Waxcap (H. insipida), Pink Waxcap (H. calyptriformis), Lemon-Green Waxcap (H. citrinovirens), Fibrous Waxcap (H. intermedia) and Snowy Waxcap (H. virginea). Of these there are normally quite a few Golden Waxcaps and Meadow Waxcaps but the ones that appeared in greater numbers this year so far are the Lemon-Green Waxcap and the Pink Waxcap. The Pink Waxcaps are mostly in one large group but the Lemon-Green Waxcaps are popping up as numerous individuals throughout the the three main fields. The photo above is a couple of these waxcaps. Another difference this year is the appearance of one or two waxcaps in the fourth field where I have not seen them before and of one Blackening waxcap in the garden area where again they have not been seen before.

Lots of Pink Waxcaps

I have had a few Pink Waxcaps (Hygrocybe calyptriformis) on site in the three years since we moved here, mostly isolated individuals. They are a Welsh Government action species and are regarded as uncommon and special. However this year I have a group of twelve in one place although I didn't recognise that they were all Pink Waxcaps until an expert took a look at one of them and told me it was a diseased individual. In fact most of them appear to have the same infection which has discoloured them from their normal bright pink colour.

Wasp Spider repeat

I noted that we had a Wasp Spider on site last month but it was only today when I bumped into the Welsh Spider Recorder that he told me that this is the only record he has received this year. Last year he knew it from just one site and there has been none recorded on that site this year. So we have the only Welsh site for 2014 that has recorded a Wasp Spider. I thought that merited a further post and picture (this time it is the underside of the spider)......

Not a good place to sleep......

I came back from a week's holiday yesterday, opened the garage doors and a pile of bats (well five) fell out. The foolish pippistrelles had decided that the gap between the doors was an attractive roost. I have ordered a batbox to put up on the garage and hope it arrives before I have to open the garage doors again. I'll then open the doors at night and hope they find the handy new purpose built roost. It may well be that they have already vacated given the rude awakening. Two of the bats regained their place on the door which I then closed very carefully. One flew off imnmediately and two sat on the ground for a few minutes. When I went in to get something to move them safely back to the doors they disappeared. I assume they also went back into the roost but in any case there are plenty of little gaps and spaces for bats all over the garage so I am sure they are fine. I managed a quick ID shot when they first sat on the ground. I think they are soprano pips (Pipistrellus pigmaeus) as they are the ones that are always around according to my bat detector.

Dragonfly central

The new pond is becoming a big attraction for dragonflies. At one point there were at least five Common Darters and a Southern Hawker around it today. I had the privilege of watching a pair of Common Darters ovipositing. They were flying in tandem and she would flick her tail down every so often into the water to deposit her eggs. She seemed to favour the shallow edges of the pond and the sound of her tail hitting the pond liner was sometimes quite audible. Meanwhile one of the other males was chasing after the pair and trying to get in on the act or at least to scare off the male who was getting the action. He had no success however.

New Species - Painted Lady

Ignore the excuses for the lack of a photograph below - the Painted Lady has returned a couple of days later to feast on the Buddleia in the garden so I do have a photo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought it had been a great year for butterflies as I had recorded 20 species including two superb new ones - Clouded Yellow and Dark Green Fritillary. Well into September and a third new one has appeared - a single Painted Lady fluttered past me and into the field in front of the house. It sunbathed long enough for me to get a positive ID but when I returned with the camera it was nowhere to be seen.

Fibrous waxcap

This is not a new species for the site but it is one waxcap that is quite distinctive and easy to identify. Both the colouration and the surface of both cap and stem are unusual. I haven't seen this mentioned in the reference books but it also seems to occur often in a close group of several fruiting bodies as per the photograph above. I didn't spot this here in the last couple of years but there are a few around this year.

Meadow Coral fungus - new species

Another spindle-like fungus found as I clear the fields of cut grass. This time it is Meadow Coral (Clavulinopsis corniculata). That makes it four species of spindle-like fungi - the Crested Coral I found a couple of years ago, the White Spindles of a couple of days ago and another Clavulinopsis species I have photographed but not yet identifed. Like Waxcaps these type of fungi are indicators of old grassland.

New Species - White Spindle

I am immersing myself in the grassland fungi to be found on site and whilst most of my attention is on the Waxcaps I have also come across a couple of spindles. The White Spindle (Clavaria fragilis) shown above is a confirmed ID but I am still working on the orange coloured spindle I found a few days ago. The fungi is a bit mashed up as I only found it whilst cutting the fields for hay.