We're going on a fungi hunt....

I got a phone call yesterday, from one of organisers of the Autumnwatch event.  As I'd filled in a feedback form I'd been entered into a raffle, and I won!  And what a fantastic prize.  A big box filled with nature goodies.

Lots of really good spotter books, lifecycle books, a solitary bee house, kids gardening books, magnifying glasses, a magnifying bug jar, kids gardening gloves.  Amazing, such a lot of wonderful stuff!

Today was a gorgeous autumn day, so we took the magnifying glasses, bug jar and fungi spotting guide to the woods.

It wasn't as busy as I expected, with it being half term.  We had Jarvis with us.  His mum works in the cafe in the woods, and we went in for lunch and to say hello.  Then we went fungi hunting.  Outside the cafe is a tree stump covered in it.

Our book helped us identify this as turkeytail.

I couldn't work out the other one on the stump, I'll need to do some googling I think. I couldn't identify this one either:

Betsy found some I've never seen before, little purple ones.  My photos didn't come out very well, the colour was more vibrant in real life.  Once she pointed these ones out, we suddenly noticed they were everywhere!  They are amethyst deceivers, and are edible toadstools.

We saw several other species, more than we have ever spotted before.  it was a very successful fungi hunt.  Bug hunting was less successful.  We moved some logs, but didn't find any woodlice or beetles.  We did find some worms, slugs and spiders.

The kids also found time for playing!  Splashing in puddles, it, being dinosaurs, the playground.  We stopped at the cafe again, this time for chocolate and to warm up a little.

I loved looking at the autumn colours, and the sun shining through the trees.  I really do love this place.