Very heavy rain the night before and not expecting much in August and that’s how it turned out. Also handicapped by camera batteries zonking out halfway through… but still a few nice finds. First was something looking liked a typical tree-trunk dwelling fungus but growing on the ground. Closer inspection revealed it was actually growing on the large exposed root of a healthy oak. It had the colour and texture of Chicken-of-the-Woods although rather too small for that species, so I’m not sure. I’ll id it as that until I have time to see if there’s another possibility.

Then we found a very delicate specimen of something. One older cap that was so flimsy as to be translucent and a small young one beside it. No id yet.

Next a Russula. Roger calls them Brittlegills but I prefer to be old-fashioned. I’m generally disinclined to try and id Russulas in the field as it’s so damn difficult, apart from the Yellow Swamp Brittlegill. But this one was an attractive shade of pink so I had a quick look at the book and immediately found a strong contender. Russula luteotacta – smell slight and fragrant, sometimes of coconut. Yes, definitely a hint of coconut in there. Poisonous, but I had a tentative taste (quite hot) and spat it out. The last picture has a very misleading colour – not pink but brown – curious, I need to keep an eye on camera foibles.

Then a solitary fungus standing in a cow field. Looks like a Mottlegill, but camera was dying so got distracted and didn’t examine it so closely.

Then another Tuberous Polypore (See 26th May.) Unfortunately the main picture is out of focus. Still not entirely sure about this one. The book says it grows on dead twigs but I’ve only found it on thick fallen branches.

Finally a small brown mushroom growing in large clusters on dead wood. Again, the colour in the photo isn’t right. It looks pink in the picture but in the field it was definitely a mid-brown colour.