Mouldy Ruby Bolettes

These are ruby bolettes - Hortiboletus rubellus. They seem to be emerging from the ground already coated in a thick layer of white mould.

 Here's a photo taken at the same spot a few years ago, with less mould:

A Cup Lichen Fringe

 Fencepost of the Week #189

A Cornucupia

 Fencepost of the Week #188

Star Slime

 Fencepost of the Week #187

This fencepost has been used as a butchering block by some bird feasting on frogs. The ground around was littered with discarded globs of star slime - the inedible jelly which frogs and toads lay their eggs in. At this time of year the slime does not yet contain the eggs, but if you look around near the slime, you can often find a blackish blobby mass of eggs.

 

Satiny Mossy Mound

 Fencepost of the Week #186

Common Earwig

 

Some close-ups of a common earwig - Forficula auricularia.

Scaly Hedgehog Mushroom

 

 

 

This is a scaly hedgehog mushroom - Sarcodon squamosus. British distribution is mostly restricted to the Caledonian pine forests. I found this one by Loch Garten. It can be used to produce some nice blue-green shades of fabric dye.