Tiny bug

A decidedly rainy day, mostly spent report writing. It improved a little in the afternoon, and on a stroll round the garden I spotted this bug sitting on one of our yellow daisies. Pete tells me it's Lygus pratensis, a species that was  previously scarce and confined to southern heaths, but which has recently undergone a dramatic range expansion. It is now widespread throughout much of southern Britain and is much commoner than its RDB3 status suggests.

The gloom never lifted,  and desperate from some fresh air, I returned to Thorpe Wood where I investigated the interior of the woodland, which smelled deliciously of mushrooms and leaf mould. I found a few more fungi including a swarm of stump puffballs and fresh examples of both bay polypore (see extra) and black-footed polypore. I also watched a lesser stag-beetle pottering over a stump. I had to use the flash as there was just no light beneath the canopy, which is still intact.