Day 18 - puffy and fluffy

Day 18

Distant Puffballs (probably Lycoperdon perlatum)

As I saw quite a lot at Fairburn Ings on Saturday I thought I'd add in the fungus that I saw today, as well as a nice bird.

Here you can see the first fungus. I couldn't get close to take a really good picture as they were on a bank behind a fence but I think they are common puffballs.

Bracket Fungi (Ganoderma australe?)

They are called puffballs as when they are ripe and they get knocked (e.g. by rain) they release their spores (seeds) through a hole at the top. They have lots of names but the best one I've seen is the Devils Snuffbox. This works well too as you're not supposed to breathe in the spores as they can cause a disease called Lycoperdonosis. 

I was surprised not to see more fungi on my walk but did see this bracket fungi too. Fungi I find tricky but my research makes me think it might be a Southern Bracket. This site helped and you can see all the different types and why it is tricky.

First Nature - Bracket Fungi

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)

Well after that I thought I'd do something easy and very familiar. Blue tits. I get these in my garden too but there were loads at Fairburn. There's lots of fascinating facts about blue tits, here's a few:

- They are the most common tit in Eurasia.

- They are found all over Britain and as far away as Iran

- Males and females look very similar but females are slightly paler

- They eat seeds, nectar, insects, catepillars and nuts

- In the spring its mainly caterpillars for them and their young, apparently in males the brighter they are indicates how many caterpillars they have eaten. The brighter they are the more attractive they are to females.


 - They can have up to 10 eggs in a clutch and young fledge between 18-21 days

- They are very agile birds and forage in many places.

There's lots of sites with information on these colourful little birds, here's a few:

BBC - Blue Tits
RSPB - Blue Tits
British Garden Birds - Blue Tits

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Z.