Ben Mitchell
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wilde-eep.bsky.social
Ben Mitchell
@wilde-eep.bsky.social
92 followers 24 following 140 posts
Game developer and nature enthusiast.
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wilde-eep.bsky.social
Mouldering in a gloomy spot #FencepostOfTheWeek
Photo of an old, bleached fencepost in gloomy surroundings. Lichens on the top.
December 12, 2025 at 7:39 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Tripe fungus - Auricularia mesenterica. Looking like tiers of bizarrely inflated turkey tail brackets. It usually grows on elm wood.

#fungi #auricularia #tripefungus #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #gigha #uk
photo of a crowd of thick, rubbery bracket fungi with fuzzy tops and smooth, translucent undersides.
December 9, 2025 at 6:53 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
I believe I found Scytinium teretiusculum for the first time a few weeks back. Added it to my image matrix of bushy little jelly lichens that grow on trees: wild-e-eep.blogspot.com/2025/05/minu...
Minutely Fruticose Jelly Lichens
Trying to make sense of some superficially minutely fruticose, corticolous jelly lichens in Cowal.  Working primarily from the BLS  Lichens...
wild-e-eep.blogspot.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:14 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
A bunch of springtails frolicking in the moss.

#springtails #poduromorpha #wildlifephotography #argyll #scotland #uk #collembola
Macro photo of some blue springtails clambering over moss. They are around 2-3mm long.
December 7, 2025 at 8:10 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Found a lumpy bit ^_^

#moss #oak #intothewoods #tuffets #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
Photo of the floor of an oak wood, covered in mossy tuffets
December 3, 2025 at 8:24 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
This entire fence has been pulled out of the ground and rolled up. It's still providing fertile surfaces for some nice lichens and mosses, though. #FencepostOfTheWeek
Photo of the mossy end of a toppled fencepost, in a roll of rusty fence-wire.
December 1, 2025 at 8:08 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
The underside of this lichen has some textures! I think this one is Umbilicaria torrefacta, growing on exposed rocks in a montane environment.

#lichen #umbilicaria #trypophobia #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk #trypophobia
Photo of the underside of a leathery lichen
November 30, 2025 at 7:26 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Clouds scudding by yesterday.
photo of a blue sky with tattered shreds of cloud
November 28, 2025 at 7:30 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Bright, fuzzy blobs of algae up in the crags of Beinn Bhreac.

#trentepohlia #algae #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of a thick, fuzzy, orange mass of algal filaments growing on a rock in bright sunshine.
November 26, 2025 at 5:37 PM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
A rather mossy witches' broom <3

#betula #moss #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of a dense ball of twiggy outgrowths half way along a birch branch. Moss overgrowing the upper surfaces.
November 25, 2025 at 8:49 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
A length of wall running along side the ridge of Beinn Bhreac, enclosing a moor called Caladh Leacainn.

#landscape #wintersun #cowal #caladh #argyll #scotland #uk #wall
Photo of a stone wall over undulating terrain with low, winter sunlight.
November 24, 2025 at 8:13 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Spruce root plate.

#tree #picea #roots #argyll #scotland #uk
Photo of twisty roots on the underside of a wind-thrown root plate.
November 23, 2025 at 8:56 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Heavy frost, and bright sun, near the top of Beinn Bhreac (454m)

#frost #tussock #wintersun #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of frosty, back-lit tussocks of grass
November 22, 2025 at 6:14 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Grizzled and cracked #FencepostOfTheWeek
Photo of an old fencepost, with rusty barbed wire and a some lichens growing on it.
November 21, 2025 at 8:05 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
One of the pixy cup lichens brightening up an old, grey stone wall.

#lichen #cladonia #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of some irregularly cup-shaped Cladonias with bright red, blobby apothecia budding round the rims.
November 16, 2025 at 7:05 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Nice oaks in some afternoon, November sun.

#oak #intothewoods #wintersun #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of some twisty tree branches with a few yellow leaves catching the westering sun
November 14, 2025 at 8:54 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Found a little grove of slime mould sporangia coming up on cow dung & took a bit home to watch them develop. I think these might be Didymium squamulosum.

#myxomycetes #didymium #slimemould #slimemold #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
Photo of some little slime mould sporangia (<1mm) looking like fluffy, white cartoon trees.
November 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Revisiting the place where I found hazel gloves last year. They are back. :-)
Slugs and rodents seem to like them, too.

#fungi #mushrooms #hypocreopsis #hazelgloves #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of a hazel branch with an orange, fingery fungus growing on it photo of some hazel glove fungi with their upper layer chewed off, perhaps by some kind of arbroreal rodent.
November 12, 2025 at 8:45 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
A cavernous crater at dusk #FencepostOfTheWeek
Photo of an old fencepost covered in moss and lichen, with central core rotted away.
November 11, 2025 at 8:53 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
A fresh clutch of burgundydrop bonnets, Mycena haematopus.

#fungi #mushrooms #mycena #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of a cluster of small, reddish mushrooms growing through a patch of moss
November 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Mystery object from the woods. This one turned out to be an old mushroom with a tiny, white fungus growing all over it. Tilachlidium, perhaps.

#fungi #mushrooms #tilachlidium #naturephotography #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of a dark, round object covered in rosettes of stiff, white hairs
November 9, 2025 at 10:31 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Autumnal oaks in Glendaruel.

#naturephotography #autumn #intothewoods #argyll #scotland #uk
photo of some woodland; yellowing leaves in with low, hazy sunlight.
November 8, 2025 at 7:17 AM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
They look very splendid, but I don't know what the functional significance of the hairs and water droplets might be. I'm not even sure whether the water comes from the substrate and is being sweated out through hairs, or if it is condensing out of the atmosphere onto them.
November 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
These tiny, white mushrooms are very good at trapping water drops with fuzzy hairs that are corkscrew-shaped under a microscope.

#hemimycena #fungi #mushrooms #naturephotography #dewdropbonnet #argyll #scotland #uk
Photo of a cluster of very small, white mushrooms; growing on an oak branch. They are covered in tiny drops of water Microscopic image of the surface of a mushroom with squiggly hairs on it. Stained red to make them easier to see.
November 4, 2025 at 2:25 PM
wilde-eep.bsky.social
Here's a micrograph of Scytinium lichenoides photobiont given a similar treatment by me. It's described as having Nostoc in short chains. Most other people depict photobionts in thin sections, while I've been cutting open a thallus and letting the contents spill out. I presume I'm doing it wrong...
November 3, 2025 at 4:27 AM