The Day I Was Stung in the Head by a Wasp

 

These photos were taken on September 9th at Causey Arch, Co Durham. It's a place we've walked many times before, and it's actually the place we had our very first walk together. 

Everything started out well, I managed to get photos of some Comma and Red Admiral butterflies for the first time this year and had a good cry at watching a pair of Buzzards overhead. However, the walk was abruptly cut short when I was stung in the head by a wasp. There was a super cool gathering of wasps in a crack in the wall, which I used my long lens to photograph, then as I walked off to catch up with Mr H, I felt a wasp bump into my head. It ended up getting stuck in my hair, and I assume it panicked and stung me. Mr H removed the sting, but as I've never been stung before and my Mam has had bad experiences in the past, we made the decision to head home! I'm absolutely gutted because I love wasps. I've picked them up and helped them to safer places with my bare hands before, and I know that their stinging me was their last resort. I've cried a lot of tears for that poor little soul. 

Anyway, here are the photos I did manage to take on our walk before we had to leave!

Fungi Hunting on Halloween at Causey Arch

 

It's taken me almost two months to edit these, and I'd forgotten how many species of fungi we spotted on our Halloween walk at Causey Arch, Stanley. We didn't intend to go looking for mushrooms and the like, but there were so many it turned into an impromptu fungi hunt! We obviously love all things nature and wildlife however admittedly we're currently pretty oblivious to the species names of fungi.

I'm going to try and list those featured here at the bottom of this post but feel free to correct me if any are wrong!
Wildlife was sparse that day and so what we lacked in birds and the like, we made up for in fungi. The birds we did see and are in this post in order were: Robin, Nuthatch, (the flock flying I cannot be sure about), Grey Wagtail and Wood Pigeon. 

Possible fungi:
Tawny Grisette
Velvet Shank
Candlesnuff Fungus
Coldfoot Bonnet
Jelly Ears
Blushing Bracket


My goodness, how difficult it is to identify fungi?! There are apparently around 15,000 species in the UK so it's not happening for me to name the ones in this post. I welcome anyone who'd like to let me know what they are though.