Seems to be the Twig Parachute Mushroom, Marasmiellus ramealis, a tiny beauty. It’s quite common but given its size it’s not surprisingly often overlooked.The Blusher, Amanita rubescens, young specimen. It’s said to be delicious but I wouldn’t recommend eating any member of the Death Cap genus (you’d only need to get it wrong once).
Tan Ear fungus, Otidea alutacea, a ground-living member of the Pezizaceae (Ascomycetes). Unlike Peziza which forms a soft cup, Otidea has a vertical slit, making it more like an ear really. On soil below the big Oak tree behind the main pond in Gunnersbury Triangle.
Update: Glad to see there’s been quite a bit of interest in this page. Good news for you, then: on the 2021 Fungus Foray (photo), we all saw quite a few Tan Ears dotted about the western side of the reserve.
Mottled Birch Bolete, Leccinum variicolor, in Gunnersbury Triangle. The species is edible (if found in quantity!) but not nearly as good as the Orange Birch Bolete.
Psathyrella, a smallish toadstool with a fragile stem, a cousin of the Inkcaps (Coprinus)
Yes you spotted it, not a fungus. A Smooth Newt under a nearby refugium.
These seem to be young Agaricus, probably Wood Mushrooms, in the ivy and leaf-litter.
Well, EVERYBODY noticed this mushroom! Giant Funnel, Leucopaxillus giganteusAmethyst Deceiver, Laccaria amethystina, very different (alas!) from the delicious Wood Blewit which also has “blue legs”.
Three Stars! Geastrum triplex x 3 in Gunnersbury TriangleA different Geastrum in Alick Henrici’s hand, so we now have two species of the genus in the Triangle. It has only 2 layers, not the 3 (obviously) of G. triplex. It looks much like G. hygrometricum, the Barometer Earthstar, but there are at least 10 species so we’d best wait for Alick’s microscope examination of the spores.
Male (slender, on right, with protruding palps) approaches Female Sheetweb Spider (against green bramble leaf, with round abdomen) cautiously across her web. He wants to mate … but isn’t so keen on ending up as her lunch …
A Painted Lady, one of the millions that have flooded across Britain this summer. A bird has had a shot at one of the eyespots on the wing (top of picture), missing the butterfly’s vital organs, and a meal.
Meadow Grasshopper in Gunnersbury Triangle’s Anthill MeadowField Grasshopper, on a refugiumCommon Darter female on dried bramble in Picnic MeadowJersey Tiger by pond boardwalk with red underwing; yellow underwing specimens are also visible around the reserve. The underwing colour appears as a startling flash when the insect takes off, but unlike many other moths, grasshoppers and so on which have such deimatic coloration, the Jersey Tiger is conspicuous when it rests. There must be a reason for the polymorphism; perhaps the startle effect works better when a predator has not seen too many insects with a particular underwing colour.
This hoverfly has a middle that lets light through as it flies, and orangey and black bands on its wings that line up with its pellucid middle and black bottom, giving it a strongly banded wasplike appearance despite (to us) being obviously a Dipteran fly. Probably enough to make it a successful Batesian mimic!
For a moment I glimpsed the brilliant indigo of a Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens), just near Gunnersbury Triangle’s picnic meadow. It was the very first sighting of that species in the reserve: a bit surprising, as it’s a species of slow-flowing rivers. It does occasionally frequent lakes, so perhaps there’s a population near the artificial waterfall over in Chiswick Business Park? I’d better go and have a look!
TWO slow-worms! Sorry about the image quality, I only held up the refugium for a moment. I think the small one started to move so I put the cover down at once.
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
