A Rubbish post

Though the river is a lot cleaner than it was a few years back it is still disappointing to see the amount of rubbish in the river and along its banks.

The first photo is the top of a car tyre that is still attached to the car. It is in the river behind Acorn Park. I have been told by the Urban Pollution Hunter that he thinks it is a Ford Fiesta. You can see another photo of it from September 2025 here. It has been there a few years and who knows what pollution would be released if it was lifted.

A little further down river are two wheels that look as though they might be from a child’s bike. Haven’t worked out what is going on but previous photos of this place sometimes show two wheels sometimes one.

If it wasn’t for the likes of fungi, worms and insects doing their bit we would be buried under nature’s rubbish. Fortunately, those in the wild, are not particularly good at recycling rubber, plastic or metal so we need to make a better job of doing it ourselves.

The fungi are on a felled tree trunk on the river bank just behind Acorn Park. I was surprised to see the Glistening Inkcap, Coprinellus micaceus, as they tend to have a season of May to November. An interesting thing about Glistening Inkcaps is that they can bioaccumulate heavy metals like Lead and Cadmium, and can contain close to half a gram of Potassium per kilogram of mushroom. [Source: Dursun N, Ozcan MM, Ozturk C (2006). “Mineral contents of 34 species of edible mushrooms growing wild in Turkey”. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.] So don’t eat those growing in grass verges. Personally I wouldn’t eat any wherever they were growing. I am surprised by the number of times I have heard of people asking “Can you eat it?” One of the phrases I seem to be thinking of more and more is “Just because it is not illegal doesn’t mean you should do it.” The same thing applies here “Just because it might not be poisonous doesn’t mean you should eat it.

I couldn’t reach it to put my initials on its underside, and to confirm the ID, but I think the bracket fungus, growing on the same tree trunk as the Inkcap, is an Artist’s Bracket, Ganoderma applanatum.

I have had some feedback from AW of the Mid Yorkshire Fungus Group agreeing with the ID of Artist’s Bracket and saying that the photo shows evidence of galls of the Yellow Flat-footed Fly, Agathomyia wankowiczii, which confirms the ID.

On my way back, near the lower entrance to the reserve, were several Goosander looking as though they might gathering to settle as the Sun was going down. They made quite a contrast; the Sun on the birds while the shaded trees were reflected in the water.