Fuscoporia it seems

 

A large spread of this vivid brown crust fruiting body on this fallen branch. It is assumed to be either Fuscoporia ferrea (Pers.) G. Cunn. or Fuscoporia ferruginosa (Schrad.) Murrill. and I think you cannot tell the difference without microscopy.

Schizopora paradoxa perhaps

 

There was a tremendous explosion of a crust on one of the smaller (oak?) trees with well developed flat teeth pointing more or less downwards. It is possible that this is a well developed crust of one of the Schizopora species, possibly the commonest, the Split Pore Crust, Schizopora paradoxa (aka Xylodon paradoxus) (Schrad.) Donk. 

On an angled, but approaching the horizontal, branch:

and again, on a more vertical branch

and on a different upright stem,

Young Datura mollis, possibly

This is an interesting poroid crust that presents here as neat pads of material with an almost reverse coralloid surface - flat with the irregular pores chased into it. The substrate is a highly decayed and quite soft birch branch. There is a very slight pinkish tinge and I should go back to see if I can get it to bruise pink as well. It resembles some images of Ceriopora excelsa (Lundell) Parmasto, which is also said to be soft and quite easily removable, with only 2 - 3 pores per mm. The pores here are bigger, I couldn't get it to bruise and it wasn't easy to remove from the substrate.

Ted Lapper thinks this might be a young Datronia mollis, the Common Mazegill. He might well be right!

There was another much thinner crust further along the branch:

Stereum ochraceoflavum possibly

 

Off to Hazel Wood towards West Peckham today for a short walk before an on-line judging session for Faversham Trees, Pleased to allow Toby to calmly explore the muddy footpath across the fields, which he clearly enjoyed. In the woods things looked quite promising for fungi. On the left a coppice stool which I think was Sweet Chestnut had one dead stem that was well colonised by a Stereum species.

At eye-level the Stereum looked pretty fresh, but lower down the stem there were many older caps and no fresh ones. It seemed that there was a wave of fruiting moving roughly up the stem. This may or may not be indicative of the progress of fungal colonisation of the stem. 

My first impression was of a pinkish crust, quite resupinate in the early stages, possibly having (retaining?) a more pileate nature in the older looking, dried out and more zonate crusts further down the stem. On looking in more detail the hairiness of the "upper" surface strongly reminded me of Stereum hirsutum, but the crusts looked significantly pinker with no trace of orange tints. The crusts looked thinner in cross section as well. Does Stereum hirsutum ever get as pink as this?

Looking in a bit more detail my first impression was of a pinkish crust, quite resupinate in the early stages, possibly having (retaining?) a more pileate nature in the older looking crusts further down the stem.

The colonisation appears to have been proceeding for a while!

One alternative is a pinkish Stereum hirsutum. I must go back to measure it and check for the black layer.

Phlebia rufa possibly

 

Phlebia rufa possibly on a really wet well decayed fallen birch branch. The colour is supposed to be very variable indeed, with brown, yellow or pinkish tones being seen in different images. However it may be worth noting that Phlebia acerina, if recognised in Europe, is similar but tends to be lighter coloured and yellower. The two taxa used to be regarded as conspecific (and still are in Europe) but are now claimed to be two separate species, confirmed by DNA studies in America.  

There are other ways to tell the two apart. A test worth carrying out is KOH, as Phlebia rufa should darken upon application, whereas Phlebia acerina should not. Generally, basidiomata of Phlebia rufa are thinner and less robust than those of Phlebia acerina. The margins of Phlebia acerina are usually entire and often detach from the substrate, whereas those of Phlebia rufa are fibrillose and closely appressed - I didn't see finrillose margins. In addition. the hymenial surface is interrupted by white, felty to woolly mycelia in many specimens of Phlebia acerina.

It is rather a moot point, because even in the American text, Phlebia acerina is not recorded in Western Europe.

One way to separate Phlebia rufa and Phlebia radiata is in the arrangement of the "polyps" which are never circular in Phlebia rufa and do tend to be radially arranged in Phlebia radiata. Ph;ebia radiata is also geerally more brightly coloured, sometimes quite a bright orange.

Stereum rugosum on Hornbeam

 This extensive Stereum growth on a Hornbeam stump growing from an old coppice stool is more likely to be Stereum rugosum than Stereum gausapatum. 

It is generally accepted that gausapatum is generally to be found on oak, although it can also be found on a few other trees such as hazel, birch, beech, sweet chestnut. Stereum rugosum however is commonly called the Broadleaf Bleeding Crust because of its much wider host range. It is difficult to know how reliable all this information is, but the indicators of a fairly light colour, little obviously pale margining and the presence of a degree of cap formation with a black upper surface all tip the balance towards Stereum rugosum.

The literature can be confusing. For example Bernicchia doesn't even mention the suggestion that rugosum can be a multilayered perennial, and says that the crust is only up to 1 mm thick.   

Tremella mesenterica

Walking through Fox Wood today a fallen thin branch by the side of the path showed the bright colours of a Tremella, Yellow Brain, a sight which eventually penetrated my brain sufficiently for me to pick the branch up. 

When closely examined I thought I did find a Peniophora quercina crust close by as well, suggesting the Yellow Brain is actually Tremella mesenterica, which feeds off Peniophora as opposed to Tremella aurantia which feeds off Stereum hirsutum. There are many, many more mesenterica records than aurantia records on the NBN gateway, so that seems to fit. Also, maybe aurantia occurs more in the warmer parts of Europe?

Much pinker by eye, as opposed to by camera flash.

Robins and a Wren in Fox Wood, two Blackbirds at the entrance.