The Wildeep Daily

Daily images created by Ben Mitchell - wild-e-eep.blogspot.co.uk

[wild-e-eep]

The ash trees may be dying, but there is still a lot to like about this ravine.

[wild-e-eep]

The forest floor was studded with thousands of tiny, white cup-fungi. These are Hymenoscyphus fraxineus - the fungus that causes the ash dieback disease that has swept across Britain in recent years.

[wild-e-eep]

Deep in a tangly spruce plantataion. These trees were blown over by a storm about 25 years ago but they didn't die. They just grew up again from side branches.

[wild-e-eep]

19 months of development on this fantastic dead end sign. November 2024 -> June 2026.

Post by @wild-e-eep · 3 images

💬 0  🔁 121  ❤️ 242 · This is the standard UK highway sign for "this is where all the lichens are" :3

[wild-e-eep]

A tiny mushroom with sparse, spiky hairs projecting from its cap. Mycena aciculata, maybe.

[wild-e-eep]

Harbour seals putting in a hard shift at the loaf factory, Inchmarnock.

[wild-e-eep]

A rusty crescent #FencepostOfTheWeek

[wild-e-eep]

Behold! A hornwort.

It's my first time seeing one and I am delighted. ^_^

[wild-e-eep]

I think this is Pilobolus kleinii, one of the dung cannon fungi AKA hat throwers.

This fungus grows on dung. Its strategy for colonising new piles of dung is to have its spores be eaten by a herbivore, pass through the animal's gut and end up in a freshly deposited stool.

To this end, these sticky black sporangia are propelled clear of the dung pile by the explosive force of the turgid swelling beneath them bursting. Each has a chance of landing on some palatable grass away from the faeces, where they can be ingested.

iNaturalist observation 372222208

[wild-e-eep]

Big volume #FencepostOfTheWeek

[wild-e-eep]

Puccinia albescens, a rust fungus, growing all over these townhall clock plants.

All photos from April.

iNaturalist observation 348560264.

[wild-e-eep]

An alderfly sitting on the fence.

[wild-e-eep]

Tongue and Groove #FencepostOfTheWeek

Not sure that's how you're supposed to do it but whatever works...

[wild-e-eep]

Auspicious signs in Inverary!

They even left the reverse blank for your personal message… ^_^

[wild-e-eep]

Buff-tip moth from Achnabreac near Lochgilphead yesterday.

A close look at some of the different scale/hair shapes contributing to its fancy get-up.

iNaturalist observation 364195519

[wild-e-eep]

No butterfly; only lichen! ^_^

[wild-e-eep]

So many bones. A thick layer of detritus from the bottom of a barn owl nest box.