On Day 4, I found these by the side of the path on a mossy decaying log.

These slime moulds were present in two forms: one was a light brown with a thin stipe, many with holes at the top presumably where spores had been released.

Others were also light brown but had white pin-mould-like protrusions emanating from them.

EDIT — 06 December 23

On further research I think that the pin-mould-like protrusions are Stilbella byssiseda.

S. byssiseda is a fungus that parasitises slime moulds [1]

Once parasitised, indentifying the host can be very difficult, but luckily I had found some clear forms — this is Cribraria argillacea.

On Day 5, I found some dark greyish blue forms.

These were all the same slime mould: starting as a dark greyish blue, stalked pin shape, then turning light brown and being covered in white protrusions.

EDIT — 13 January 2024

These blue forms are the juvenile forms of C. argillacea — if you look very closely, you can see a structure of darker ‘veins’ and a cup-like base which is also darker in colour.

On Day 6, I found some more with clay buff “heads”, while the rest were entirely covered in white spikes.

On Day 7, they hadn’t changed much.

On Day 8, they had mostly diminished.

REFERENCES

[1] — bioinfo page