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The brackets of this species can be from 8 to 22 cm wide and are characterised by having a sharp edge. They are pale brown on the upper surface with circumferential bands. The white to cream porous underside bruises pink when scratched, hence the common name. When old and no longer viable the brackets age to a striking red-brown colour. Found on dead deciduous wood, particularly Alder, Birch, Cherry and Willow. Tough and woody. Can occur singularly or in groups. By River Si

This is one of those birds that is a little easier to spot in the autumn and winter as migrants join the resident population, and harsh weather may drive them into your Otley garden, especially if you’ve put seeds out for them. They are smaller and more acrobatic than our other finches, so you might see them hanging upside down from your feeder. Otherwise look out for them in conifers, birch and alder, where they might also feed on insects. You may well hear them first, and t

A fungal disease of woody plants causing branches to die back. Small coral-pink raised spots (pustules) form after the branch dies, that’s when you can find them on the dead branch laying on the woodland floor. The presence of coral spot often indicates that the plant has been weakened by other factors, such as poor growing conditions, environmental stress, or other pathogen infections. Spores from the pink pustules on the bark are dispersed in rain splash and wind-blown rain

One of the most commonly encountered slime molds in the UK. This one was spotted on the Chevin, it is found on decaying wood. It appears from June through November as a pink to bright red, pillow-shaped, tightly-packed mass on well-rotted logs, sometimes on moss. The surface is knobby, like a raspberry. It is not edible, not that most of us feel tempted by anything called mold. By River Six Photo by River

Pictures of the male suggest the painter gave up “colouring-in” after the front third: the head and chest have an unusual brown/yellow/pink combination, with the rest of the body greys, whites and blacks. As usual, the female is harder to ID with her Mallard-like camouflaged plumage, and the male is similar outside the breeding season. Wigeon are dabbling or surface-feeding ducks, and can be spotted in winter at Knotford Nook and (especially) Lindley Wood reservoir, where the

Also commonly known as the Dirty Tricholoma . Can be found throughout Europe, where fruiting bodies appear under conifers, particularly pine and spruce, from late summer to late autumn. It is generally regarded as edible but also splits opinion with some research linking it to kidney failure, which would mean it is deadly poisonous! So I would not forage this one. By River Six Photo by River

Blackbirds live in Otley all year but at this time of year and throughout the winter our resident birds are joined by migrant birds from Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Blackbirds are on of the most common wild bird species in the UK and can be found everywhere; from our gardens to woodlands, hedgerows, scrublands and parks. In fact they are only missing at the very highest peaks, where they are generally replaced by Ring Ouzels. The typical lifespan for a blackbird is three

You can buy these earthworms, because they are particularly good at rapidly processing organic waste into nutrient-rich compost, but the ones that turned up in our bin got there under their own steam. They have several alternative names such as Brandling Worm, Red Wiggler Worm, Manure Worm and Trout Worm, but the stripes make it a bit of a no-brainer for me. They have huge appetites, and live in rotting vegetation or manure but rarely soil. Tiger Worms are used in the process

Pine trees can leave me a bit cold – I’m thinking of David Bellamy’s “arboreal slums” – lines of monotonous ever-greens in dark plantations that support relatively little wildlife. But we don’t have too many of these around Otley, and we do have some great examples of my favourite pine, with their twisting, serpentine branches and distinctive reddish bark. The Scots Pine in my photo is in the cemetery, and there are a few down East Busk Lane and others on the Chevin, for exam

Also known as Fairy Ink Cap, they are quite common at this time of year, and fairly easy to spot as they always form dense mats over dead wood. These mushrooms are reportedly edible, but since the name Crumble Cap describes their tendency to disintegrate when touched, they make an unpractical forage. They belong to a group of mushrooms called Coprinus - which means ‘living on dung' - but unlike other members of their family, Trooping Crumble Caps are vegetarians that do not l

One of the great joys of Autumn for me, along with the changing colour of the leaves, are mixed flocks of tits flittering around the trees and hedges. Little birds that nested in pairs during the Spring and defended their territory, now reform large social flocks made up of Blue, Coal, Great, Marsh and Willow tits, as well as Long tail tits (that aren’t actually true tits at all, but are a separate group of birds altogether) and finally another non-tit, the Goldcrest also joi

Looking like something has chewed it up and spat it out, the white saddle mushroom is one of those fungi that look otherworldly strange to me. The whole fruit body is actually a highly folded thin sheet, like mother nature's origami. You can spot these little oddities in the leaf litter of Beech or Oak. I am reliably informed that some of the old books described white saddle as edible, but this was likely down to poor research, as they actually cause upset stomachs if ingeste

One of the world’s commonest birds, these are easy to spot down at the Gallows Hill ponds, though they come out of the water much more than their close relatives the Coots. They can even climb trees, though I don’t remember seeing one do so. They breed co-operatively, which means that older chicks help their parents raise younger siblings. The chicks look comical to me, with their messy black down, colourful heads, stubby little wings and huge, oversize feet. Apparently paren

Similes abound for this distinctive lichen – it is also compared with golf tees and even Shrek’s ears – but the pixie reference is reinforced by the suggestion that its rough texture is “pixie dust”. There’s loads of it on the stone wall on the right of Johnny Lane as you climb the Chevin. Lichen is fascinating stuff: actually two organisms – fungi and algae – living together in a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship. The algae provides food through photosynthesis, w

There are two native subspecies of Ivy in the UK – one that climbs and one that spreads across the ground. There are many great examples around Otley, and at the moment the mature ones are in flower, and consequently providing valuable nectar, pollen, and then berries for insects and birds, when those things are in short supply. This morning one such plant on the north side of Leeds Road (before the roundabout) was alive with insects, and evergreen ivy provides shelter for a

We usually see these packed together in dense clusters, and those I found in our garden are no exception, growing from the roots of an old cherry tree we unfortunately had to fell. Mica is a mineral that can be ground down into a shiny powder and used in everything from make-up and paint to cement – it is sometimes referred to as “nature’s glitter”. The caps of the young mushrooms are coated in a thin layer of reflective mica-like cells that give rise to their common names, w

I saw a small flock of these thrushes eating hawthorn berries along the old railway line, though you can sometimes see them in flocks of over a hundred birds. Like the larger Fieldfares, with whom they are often seen, they fly south from Scandinavia at night-time to spend the winter in Otley. They are quite nomadic, rarely returning to the same place to spend the winter. The red colouring is more under the wing, on the flanks, and they have a bold white stripe above the eyes.

In the cemetery I think we have examples of both Common or English Yew and Irish Yew. The former is a native evergreen, the latter a mutant first discovered in County Fermanagh in 1780. The needles of the former grow in rows, whilst the latter’s are darker and grow from all around the stem. They obviously have much in common, in particular the fact that they are often to be found in churchyards. They can live a very long time, with some Yews in this country believed to be amo

Along with their more easily identifiable Redwing cousins, Fieldfares have arrived in Otley! I often feel a little sad noticing all our summer migrants have left, it has been a couple of months now but Fieldfares arriving along with our other winter visitors always put a smile on my face. Their bellies are white, their breasts and flanks are tinted orange and are heavily speckled. They can be found living in flocks which can be quite large, often mixed with Redwings, in a var