The magic of mushrooms!

 Autumn is a magical time for the world of fungi, and our mild weather interspersed with rain has made conditions ideal for them to grow. With our local lockdowns seeing me unable to venture out of my borough into Newport to visit Goldcliff for the birds, I have found myself instead spending more time than usual in the local woodlands. Although I have been watching the birds as well, I have taken the opportunity to look for fungi, and always on the search for what we call a lifer - a new species for the list.

I have been seeing pictures on Twitter of people finding Earthstars, Bird's Nest Fungi and Devil's Fingers - all of which are lifers for me, and my enthusiastic search for these continue, so far to no avail, but I will keep looking. Back in September, one Thursday evening after work, fortune was to smile on me. Since a young boy and reading the then weekly and very popular Living Countryside magazine, I always desired to see certain species that stood out as they looked so unusual. One of these was the rarer cousin of the Common Stinkhorn.

So there I was with my good friend Kerry. I had just shown him a large group of Stump Puffballs, and as we walked on through a mixed woodland comprising mainly of Beech, I put my foot down on a small log to step onto a raised bit of ground. There beside my foot was the unmistakable Dog Stinkhorn - a species I had longed to see and thought I would never ever get to see. I knew immediately what I was looking at but they were a lot smaller than what I was expecting. In fact we both commented on how much they looked like an unused discarded cigarette.

To say I was overjoyed would be an understatement. Nothing beats finding something new yourself, and next to this specimen was another, and another. In fact in the small area we counted seventeen growing. Looking in the books that evening it indeed said they are found in small groups. I visited the spot over the next three weeks and they have mainly gone over now with only one remaining on my last visit. 

A Magpie with an ink cap!

Many years ago when I was a teenager, my late father and I were walking in these same woodlands looking for birds when we came across a strange looking fungi. Having an interest in all flora and fauna this caught our eye. It stood on a white stem about 6 inches high and had a jet black cap with tiny white scales over it. Looking in the books when we got home it was a fungi known as a Magpie Ink Cap - an apt name for this unusual fungi. At the time I had a 35mm camera and took a photo but this was lost over the years. 

Last year in the same woodlands but in a different area I was overjoyed to find three together. The memories of that first find with my father came flooding back as if it were yesterday, so finding my second only ones was an emotional time in more ways than one. This group of three were not in the best of condition however, having been nibbled by slugs and starting to go over, which means as they mature they start to lose the white flakes that give them that distinctive look.

But all was not lost. Fast forward another year to early October, again in the same  woodlands but this time towards the top end, where for some strange reason I decided to walk along a little further on the one track that leads into the woods. I was literally just thinking to myself 'I wonder if I will find a Magpie Ink Cap today' when I glanced for no particular reason into an open area under some mature Beech trees. And there it was, the specimen you can see on the pictures here. This was a 'punching the air' moment. Not only was this a fully grown specimen, but it was mostly untouched  by insects and stood proud from the leaf litter. I was overjoyed, not only was this only the third find in over 30 years but it was a cracking example. 

I am still hoping to see some more. The search will always continue.