Decomposition time

A fallen tree, a feast for fungi.

I think this is honey fungus - the species who counts in its number the largest living being... wait a sec... maybe there are two different Armillaria? Hard to be certain. And I didn't see the fruiting bodies. And besides, mushrooms are very hard to ID in my opinion.

Still, I like these pictures

And I like the reminder that not all fungi are good for trees. Harriet Rix's book explores tree/fungi relations and she is a little sniffy about the inclination to read into this any pro-social ideology. She's even more sniffy about the concept of Mother Trees having some pseudo-mammalian connection with their offspring. Or even being female. This is a way of talking about trees that helps us to think, but can bring in so much irrelevant baggage that it's counter-productive.

Near this fallen tree, three muntjac bounced out of the scrub and later I thought I saw a roe, but it was probably another muntjac.