Looking around

Our run of settled weather continues - a bit of rain here and there, some sunshine inbetween and mild temperatures combine to make walking a very pleasurable activity. Looks like the rats have been up to other activities as I've been catching a number of juveniles around the boundary traps. The expected rat explosion after an excellent fruiting season has started with 5 rats caught in the last week, compared to a total of 15 for the first 4 months of the year. I'm using Nutella in half the traps and dark chocolate drops in the other half; so far there's no clear-cut bait winner with numbers split evenly.

The bonus of checking my rat traps daily means that I get to see the delicate fungi that only last a day and I see who/what else has walked the track after they leave their prints in the mud. Here's a few pics from the last week...

A delicate blue-tinged jelly-stemmed helmet

Fresh kiwi poo on the boundary track - the pink berry is a miro fruit

Devil's Matchstick or Scarlet Pixie Cup, Cladonia floerkeana - the apothecia
(red fruiting bodies) are just starting to develop

Cladonia floerkeana - a fructose lichen, I think
the stalk bit is called podetia

 

Cladonia floerkeana - Close-up of apothecia

Moss on tree stump

A bright orange gill fungi

Another gill fungi, a more subdued orange

Not sure what these are - one for NatureWatch

A dead spider in one of the traps

After so much looking down, it's good to stretch the neck muscles and look up...

Double rainbow 6 May 2014

Amazing cloud formation that stayed like this for over an hour 11 May 14

Sunset 11 May 14