Spiders and Fungi.

 Just before a superb trip to Scotland, I had a few local outings mainly searching for Fungi. However, my favourite trip was to Ashdown Forest with Pete and David, where we were pleasantly surprised to find good numbers of Raft Spider, a species I have seen many times before in the area, but not in such good numbers. I was also trying out a new lens that I was hoping would work well for close up photography, despite it being a 100-400 zoom lens. As it happened, the spiders were perfect for trying out the lens.

Raft Spider with prey.

Raft Spider finishing off its meal.

Raft Spider in hunting mode.

Another Raft Spider hunting.

In all we saw well over double figures of Raft Spider, and with many photographed with the new lens we headed to another location to look for the fungi. 

Several species were seen, but the best was found by David, a beautiful Upright Coral Fungus.

Upright Coral Fungus.

We also saw several Fly Agaric, although my best Fly Agaric specimen was found a few days later in a private woodland.

Fly Agaric.

The following week, Lisa and I went back to Ashdown Forest to search out the Raft Spiders again. Strangely, we found many more than I had seen the previous week, over 30 seen, although these were mostly juvenile, whereas with Pete and David, most were fully grown adults.

Lisa however, did spot a lovely example of the Pixy cup lichen.

Cladonia pyxidata.

On the 9th of October on a lovely day, I was walking on a circuit of my local patch, when I was very surprised to spot a fresh Adonis Blue.  This species always has a 2nd brood in August which can go into early September, but an individual in October is extremely unusual, and would point towards a 3rd brood individual. Of course, it is very unlikely to find a partner to mate with, so I expect it ended up dying without helping next years generation.

Probable 3rd brood Adonis Blue.

On the same walk I also saw a couple of Clouded Yellows. These were almost certainly British born individuals from eggs laid earlier in the summer. On a walk today, November 2nd, I spotted another Clouded Yellow flying in sunshine.

Male Clouded Yellow.

In the week leading up to the Scotland trip , I also had several vists in the garden from a lovely Green Woodpecker. It was really good at digging small holes in the lawn as it hunted for food. I expect that my lawn is productive for the bird as I let it go pretty wild each year!!

Green Woodpecker at home.