Autumn colours at Nostell Priory NT

Autumn colours at Nostell Priory NT and planty of fungus there too

It was a beautiful autumn day today and so I went for a stroll to check out the autumn colours at Nostell Priory NT property just down the road from my house. Despite it being well into November, there was still plenty of colour about, especially by the lower lake. There was a good selection of fungus including fly agaric and shaggy pholiota (pictured below). On the lake, in beautiful light, was a good selection of wildfowl including wigeon, shoveller, tufted ducks and mallards but all just that bit too far away for anything other thna a record shot. There were one or two female gooseander too but again, getting close was difficult. However, I cam upon one bird sleeping on a log, a usual spot to find these birds at this site, and a magaed to get very close. The bird was in such a deep sleep, I was only getting shots of it with its head under its wing until I disturbed it. In a moment of panic she splashed into the water and swam away quickly and gave me an indignamt look over her shoulder for disturbing her. I managed a shot or two of a different bird preening out in the lake. The colour of the trees reflected beautifully in the water making the birds appear to be swimming in pea green soup nut my favourite shot was of the pholiota.