Mere Sands Wood

Visited Mere Sands Wood Nature reserve today and spent more than one hour watching a kingfisher fish. It was great watching it through the binoculars, but it was too far away to photograph with a 300 mm lens. 
We stayed to watch the cormorants come in to roost. Not sure how many there were but all the trees round the lake were covered with them. 
I know very little about fungi and have been unable to identify this. I am waiting for ispot users. 
Update: It has been identified as velvet shank but if you look this up, every photograph you see looks different. It is no wonder it is so hard to identify.

Extra photo: cormorants.