Hampstead Heath Walk

Had a walk on Hampstead Heath in North London last weekend. Things were very autumnal although it was a wonderful morning with blue sky and some interesting cloud formations. The Heath was very busy and there wasn't much bird life to be seen.

We found a couple of unhappy looking insects that didn't appreciate the cold. Firstly (below left) a bush cricket that had its tail between its legs!! It did after a while start walking along but it seemed very sluggish. I believe it is an Oak Bush-Cricket (Meconema thallasinium) and true to its name it was found beneath an oak tree. You can hear the calls of bush crickets on this site about Cornwall.The second insect was a caterpillar I have not yet identified but again it seemed half frozen.

There's a fallen tree near a ditch not too far from Kenwood House. It must have been down for a few years and is becoming increasingly colonised by fungi. There are certainly more there than last year.

The above pictures are both of the same species, Sulpher Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). They have a yellowy tinge to them that hasn't come out well in the photographs. They are growing over most of the east facing side of the trunk.

Above left is probably Hypholoma marginatum and above right is one of the Phlebia species. Both of these species were growing near the base in what is possibly a slightly damper environment. There were a number of these bracket type fungi (below left) which are Chrondrostereum purpureumas well as this very interesting collection (below right) of what look like miniature red grapes - one of the myxomycetes.

Thanks again to Colin Duke from [UKWildlife] for help with the fungal IDs.