Baildon Bank & Midgeley Wood, 8 Sept.

Be aware spider like things – Harverstman.

When I do gardening I put gardening gloves on. When I do woodwork I put a woodwork apron on. After hanging camera straps over my shoulders, putting camera batteries in my pocket, the thing that turns me into a photographer, as I close the boot and walk away from the car, is that I put my Tilley hat on. The hat doesn’t improve my photos but I was pleased I had it on during this walk. Gusts of wind caused Acorns to fall from the trees and I could hear them brushing the leaves and branches as they fell to the ground with a little thud. I was surprised that I didn’t get hit by one but was comforted in knowing that it wouldn’t hurt if I did.

Several trees had quite a covering of Acorns under them, some with little holes in them were an Acorn Weevil had emerged, hence me including the photo in Creatures. I posted a photo of an Acorn Weevil in the Insects and Things chapter of my Bracken Hall Green to the river. Mid July 2025 post.

As usual I checked on some of the leaves of Oak trees to see the Galls and spotted one I hadn’t noticed before. The base of some of the leaves looked a mess twisted lumps, I think these are the result of the Andricus curvator wasp.

A few butterflies were around, quite a few Large White, a Red Admiral and several Small Coppers.

I was lucky (?) to spot the Harvestman with its strange arrangement of legs.

I was surprised to see that I had a photo of the Treecreeper that was recognisable as such. The light was poor and this one was the only one worth saving. The lens was at 800mm and the shutter speed was 1/45s. I must have caught it just as it paused in its searching as it went up the tree.

At the small pond outside the Church on the Green I spotted 3 Common Darter dragonflies. While I was taking the photos two Alsatian dogs jumped in the water in front of me so that put a stop to the photography. I hope the dogs weren’t dosed with flea treatment or the eggs that the dragonfly was laying would not come to much, though the pond is part of a little stream so the insecticide would get carried away eventually.

I did a bit of investigating for this pale green fungus. Bracket Fungus? Turkeytail? After a bit of digging I am going to say, with no confidence, that is a resupinate fungus, Yellowing Curtain Crust. Stereum subtomentosum. It is velvety green, thin and the underside is smooth with a few warts.

The pale fungus with the darker edges is a bracket fungus, possibly Turkeytail. The underside has pale pores.

The yellow on what looks like a burnt tree trunk is, I think, a Slime mould called Fuligo septica also known as dog vomit slime mould.

The photo of the two that are well past their best could be a kind of Funnel fungus or a funnel shaped Chanterelle mushroom, except that on further reading both those kinds of fungus would be on soil and this one is sprouting out of wood.

In Midgeley Wood there were quite a few fallen trees with many of them rotting away and looking as though they have been pecked at by birds and scratched at by animals. In some cases this had uncovered the fungal Mycelium that has been growing through the wood.

The last two I have said are a fungus of the Genus Gloeoporus and a fungus of the Auricularia genus.

The photos of the wind turbines, the Saffron desi restaurant, that for many years was The Cricketer’s Arms, and the view of the houses on Rhodes Street and Baker Street were taken from up the bank behind B.H. Woodworking, of Bernard Hobson, at Baildon Green.

The last landscape was taken from thmiddle of the West side of the buildings at Baildon Green.