Friday 27 November 2015

Grub up!

I found this grub when tending to my leaf mould pile. The pile was made up with the 2014 autumn leaves and has been undisturbed since then. The grub is about 5cm long. I am unsure whether it is the larva of a stag beetle or a cockchafer since I get both species emerging in the garden in early summer.


I returned the grub carefully to a part of the pile that will not be disturbed for some time.

Wednesday 25 November 2015

October in my garden


Both of these caterpillars walked across in front of me one afternoon.



The first is a pine hawk moth, hyloicus pinastri. Unsurprisingly, I was standing under a pine tree when I saw it!





The second is a pale tussock moth, calliteara pudibunda. This feeds on a range of shrubs, so I don't know which it eats in my garden.







Now to the fungi! It seems to have been a particularly prolific year for them here.




A birch polypore has appeared on the same tree as last year.









These are new to me. There is a huge number of these growing in one of my raised beds. I believe they are white domecaps, lyophyllum connatum. I think some spores must have come in with the compost.










I have five or six of these around my grassed areas. I am fairly sure that they are boletes, boletus cisalpinus.










The blue staining in the cut stem and the bruised pores are indicative of this species.










Another common one. There are lots of these common earthballs around the garden. They seemed to start really early this year and I have never seen so many before.





These are not the only fungi in the garden. There are several others. Small ones in the grass and huge clumps on the old tree stumps, but I have not got round to recording all of them! Perhaps I'll photograph a different set next year.

Where do I Walk?

Mainly around the National Trust land at Washington Common and Warren Hill in West Sussex. I also spend some time around my old Steyning walks and other interesting places in West Sussex.