Woodcock

I forgot to say that I thought I saw a woodcock on my last visit to the little plantation.

I think it was a woodcock because of the sound when it shot out of the scrub and because I had an impression of a long bill. Bill is the right word, according to WT aficionado Henry Stanier. Beaks may be on squids. Birds have bills. Anyway, I had the impression of a long bill and the thought 'woodcock!' buzzed in my brain. This is cool as they aren't exactly common and it's nice to know that the undisturbed overgrown wooded patch serves to offer them a safe haven.

The front page picture is, in fact, of a tree creeper. Yes - it's there. Microscope would've come in handy.

I had to duck away from the volunteering task - just as well as I'd already burned my hair in the fire and was sporting a bandage after slicing into my thumb while cooking - to talk to a doctor. The doctor was late so I listened to goldfinches, blue tits, robins and wrens. I saw a kestrel dive and maybe make a catch and a buzzard launch up out of the hedge in front of me.

Now that's the kind of volunteering day I like!

I also saw this.

This is Tremella mesenterica also known as yellow brain or witch's butter fungus. Apparently, it's a parasite on other fungi - notably hairy curtain - and is or produces a sort of yeast. This yeasty film seems to be useful:

Pullulan is an exopolysaccharide produced on the surface of microbial cells. It is produced mainly by yeasts such as fungus Aureobasidium pullulans and other microorganisms like Cytaria darwinii, Cytaria harioti, Teloschistes flavicans, Tremella mesenterica, Rhodotorula bacarum, and Cryphonectria parasitic [43,44]. [...]

Pullulan is a non-ionic, non-hygroscopic, non-toxic, non-mutagenic, and non-carcinogenic biopolymer. [...] Due to its characteristics, pullulan has been extensively used for food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications. The food industry uses it as a stabilizer, binder, intensifier, beverage filler, dietary fiber, thickener, texture improver, and food packaging. Concerning the pharmaceutical and biomedical applications, it is employed as adhesives and denture pastes, capsule coatings, drug delivery, gene delivery systems, vaccination, tissue engineering [43,45], hydrophilic coatings for scaffolds [46], among others. [Full article here.]

So there you have it. As if you cared....