Photography #25 - Into the woods...

As it's fungi season, I thought I'd show you a few of my favourite places to go looking for mushrooms in the UK North West...

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Possibly an old cluster of Sulphur Tuft mushrooms, Hypholoma fasciculare

The Sefton Coast
I've posted about this place in more detail a while ago here, but never about it's fungi. Formby is a nature reserve with coastal sand dunes and a pine forest - great to walk round at any time of the year, but autumn brings the added delights of mushrooms...

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My two 'house monkeys', let loose in Formby
when they were much younger...

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Not sure what this one is...

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Again, my two exploring the woods a few years ago...
with a Russula sp. fungi

Alderley Edge
This is a village in Cheshire with some National Trust land (woodland with a sandstone escarpment ) that provide some beautiful views of the Cheshire countryside - lovely day out but can get very busy at weekends...more details here

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Bracket fungi emerging from some felled trees...

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A little cluster of Psathyrella sp. fungi i think,
growing from under a fence...

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Xylaria hypoxylon emerge, like tiny antlers,
from this mossy stump...

Mere Sands Wood
This is another beautiful little nature reserve with mixed habitats in Lancashire, here. It was quarried for a while in the 70's and 80's for the glass-making industry and was then managed, to return it to it's natural state. It has since been designated as an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), due to it's range of wildlife.

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Sulphur Tuft fungi, doing a great job of breaking down this trunk...

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My first ever sighting of Helvella lacunosa...loosely related to
the Xylaria featured a couple of photos above

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Really not sure about this one...
if anyone knows what it is, let me know...

That's all for now, but I'm sure there will be more fungi-infused instalments coming in the future. Hope you enjoyed them.

Adam