A Walk with a Purpose

I do like to set off on a walk that has some sort of purpose to it, and today's was just such a walk, though the chances of success in this particular search seemed low.

Each year one of my favourite fungi 'flowers' in early to mid-February, so finding one today seemed a bit optimistic but, on following a footpath near Dunrobin Castle while.... 

....admiring the masses of snowdrops that are in full display, I found the day's objective....

....some scarlet elf caps.

These two were small, not more than an inch across, and growing all by themselves on the steep, muddy bank shown in the top picture. I confess I was surprised to find them: I only know of two other sites in Dunrobin Woods, and the number of fungi in general this year strikes me as being exceptionally low.

I was following the particular footpath in order to reach this woodland clearing, the place where we've found elf caps on several occasions before, but a good search produced nothing until....

....I spotted this little beauty, which was followed by three more.