We visited three times in October — once at the beginning and twice towards the end of the month.

6th October

Near the Zen Zone some unidentified mushrooms on a decaying log.

In the Zen Zone more unidentified mushrooms on a stick…

and fragment of wood.

At Basecamp we saw more of what we believe to be Artomyces pyxidatus. We saw this fungus in the summer on the same log.

These specimens definitely appear to have the key distinguishing feature of A. pyxidatus — the crown-like tips on the branches of the fungus.

Using Google Lens and Mycokey’s AI identifier, and cross-referencing with resources like First Nature, the mushrooms below that we spotted at The Dell are likely Galerina marginata, commonly known as the Funeral Bell. This species is deadly poisonous.

Also in The Dell, something that I’d normally ignore because I’d never be able to ID it — but I wondered if it might be a slime mould. After some online investigating, I’m thinking maybe it’s a teleomorph (fruiting body) of Trichoderma paraviridescens. [1]

On the way to the Gnarly Oak some sub-millimetre white furry growths with translucent orange-brown droplets which remind me of woolly woodwart (Lasiosphaeria ovina) which we saw in the same area earlier in the year.

And some probable Hypholoma fasciculare (Sulphur Tuft).

I was drawn to the bulbous base of the stem of the mushroom below.

At the end of the drainage channel path, after The Gnarly Oak and before The Outpost, an unidentified clay-pink mushroom growing from a small branch.

Near The Outpost we noticed some bright red from afar which turned out to be two Pluteus aurantiorugosus (Flame Shield) mushrooms emerging from the same tree wound where we spotted P. aurantiorugosus last year during my daughter’s survey of the woodland at Strumpshaw Fen.

After The Outpost, in the same windthrown root hollow where found Stemonitopsis typhina, we saw gregarious groups of what may have been Trichia species sporangia and what appeared to be old S. typhina.

See more about these slime moulds.

Further along the Woodland Trail, after The Outpost, we spotted these slender and delicate Mycena-like mushrooms.

In the summer, we have saw the slime mould Stemonitis flavogenita on this degrading trunk (below) — this visit we saw some other-worldly Phlebia tremellosa (jelly rot).

20th October

Just before Basecamp I came across some Cortinarius in the same spot that my daughter saw in her 2022 and 2023 surveys of the reserve woodland

And on a log that we have often seen slime moulds, a Tubifera ferruginosa.

At The Dell we noticed some peculiar white, spikey hair-like growth on a few nettle stems. Google Lens suggested the woolly aphid but it’s clearly not that — when I tapped a stem a puff of white, powdery substance, possibly spores, was released.

Unidentified mushrooms and Xylaria hypoxylon.

More unidentified mushrooms in the following photos.

Opposite The Outpost, a stump and it’s fallen trunk were being colonised by the slime mould Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa.

After The Outpost, a lovely line of white, unidentified juvenile slime mould sporangia

27th October

Just before the reserve carpark, at the junction with Tinkers’ Lane we spotted some Coprinus comatus (the shaggy inkcap) which we often see at this spot.

At Basecamp, on the end of a small log supporting one of the log benches, some Auricularia auricula (jelly ear) [2] and what looks like it could be Trentepohlia aurea – which I saw in the summer scrambling up Nether Red Brook in the Peak District.

Trentepohlia aurea is a green algae and the orange colouration is a result of carotenoid pigments within the algal cells. BUT maybe it’s the ozonium form 😱 of the fungus Coprinellus domesticus – the firerug inkcap [3][4].

In the photo below maybe a Trichia or Hemitrichia slime mould.

The always exquisite Stemonitis slime mould.

Along the drainage channel path, after The Gnarly Oak, an unidentified fungus that almost looks like a fried egg!

Further down on the trunk (as seen in the first photo above) most likely the same fungus fruiting as a bracket.

At the end of the drainage channel path we spotted a Coprinopsis lagopus – the Hare’sfoot Inkcap!

In the same area a strange white growth on a fallen leaf.

And near The Outpost, on the same tree that we spotted Pholiota squarrosa (the shaggy scalycap) during my daughter’s survey in November 2023, we encountered this mushroom again.

[1] Photos of Trichoderma paraviridescens at iNaturalist

[2] Paper proposing that Auricularia auricula-judae be returned to the original epithet designated by Linnaeus – creating the binomial Auricularia auricula.

[3] Coprinellus domesticus at First Nature

[4] Coprinellus domesticus at Wikipedia