Autumn has definately arrived with a large flock of siskins zooming around the lake area. It's a very lively bird that twitters loudly as it flies and loves feeding on alder trees. It can be seen all year round but is usually around in the winter when birds from Europe arrive.

A little grebe was dabbling in the reeds today but was easily spooked. It was joined by a male tufted duck:

 Four pheasants were also around the lake, three males and a female but again were very flighty.

The crows had been busy with the mussels again:

There was an oak apple gall underneath the large old oak tree:

This is an old one - an oak apple gall wasp causes this, where the female wasp lays her eggs in the leaf bud. You can just see some tiny holes which are where the larvae have eaten their way out.

There were quite a few fungi around today. The common inkcap:

And the shaggy inkcap:

I think this next one is jelly rot:

and lots of little ones on mossy logs which may well be common bonnet: