Thu 2010-03-11 
From late last spring: another phantom crane fly, this time Ptychoptera minuta (Diptera: Ptychopteridae).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-24.
Wed 2010-03-10 
A leaf spot fungus, possibly Guignardia philoprina, on a decaying holly leaf (Ilex aquifolium). Identification based on comparison with this image at the British Mycological Society's Fungi4Schools site. (The spelling G. phylloprena in that site [now corrected] appears to be an error, as it occurs only nowhere else out on the web and is not listed among the known synonyms of G. philoprina.)
The classification of the genus Guignardia seems to be in state of flux at the moment, following the realisation that its species are really just the sexual stages (teleomorphs) of species in the genus Phyllosticta (anamorphs). See here, and half-way down this page, for more details. Getting the classification of these fungi right is important because some of them are economically significant plant pathogens.
Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-02-13.
Tristram Brelstaff
It could also be Trochila ilicana, which also appears in the excellent Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms and Toadstools (Sterry and Hughes, 2009). However, on this page at Janusz Blaskowski's Saprophytic, Pathogenic and Symbiotic Fungi of Poland site, the spots on the leaves look quite different.
Tue 2010-03-09 On MSDN Channel 9, here.
Tristram Brelstaff
Not one of Erik's best interviews: it would have probably benefited from the presence of a whiteboard, and Erik seemed reluctant to interrupt to steer the discussion and interpret points for the viewers, as he has done in other interviews. Still, I found it pretty interesting.
Tue 2010-03-09 
From last summer: a phantom crane fly, probably Ptychoptera contaminata (Diptera: Ptychopteridae). The following photo, though rather blurred, shows the wings better:
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-22.
Mon 2010-03-08 
Yesterday morning I came across these little yellow spheres on a on my Sunday morning foray round the lakes. I think they are the sporangia of a slime mould, possibly Arcyria pomiformis. [Note added 2012-02-17: more likely a Trichia sp.] There were also some more mature specimens nearby:
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-03-07.
When I got back home, I realised that I had probably photographed the same species a few weeks earlier, but at the time I had assumed that they were insect eggs:
Only when I took a close look at this photo did I notice that they too were fuzzy.
Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, on 2010-02-13.
