Added identification for the mystery bug on yesterday's thistle. Looks like I have a new species relationship between the hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri and these bugs.
Cloudy with bright spells.
The first waxcap of the year: the Blackening Waxcap - Hygrocybe nigricans - left, and the increasing fungal gall Taphrina alni on Alder cone (right).
The 'car park' is just a bare patch of compressed ground. Ideal for plants like this Common Cudweed.
Stropharia pseudocyenae has excellent dark spores.
Spore print as taken the same night:
Spores at x400 magnification. Dry (left) and in water (right).
This Lesser Dungfly was perched on another specimen nearby.
And inside the forestry I found several specimens of Tricholomopsis rutilans. Looks like I'll need to re-activate the archived fungal portion of my memory soon.