Wolves Wild

A hawthorn shield bug, resting in the sun on an alkanet leaf. The third shield bug species I’ve noticed this year.

For several days in the middle of this month, a frog spent some time in the late afternoon resting in the water of a bird bath, almost completely submerged. The routine ended as abruptly as it began.

Another day when a heron was showing itself on one of the West Park lake islands. This time the bird was on one of the regular lookout points, on a fallen but still healthy willow, keeping watch on what was going on.

Shaggy inkcaps. Like other inkcap mushrooms, they release their spores by deliquescing. Their caps gradually turn to a black mush containing the spores, starting from the rim and moving towards the centre. This pair show the process half completed.

Bright colours of some of the ripe fruits and berries I’ve noticed on my walks this month. All growing wild, though some possibly escaped ornamental garden varieties (e.g. the crab apples).

Lesser marsh grasshopper jumping about in the grass. As it leapt around it kept landing in positions were it was only half-hidden in the grass.

Autumn, so it’s garden spider season again. Sometimes called cross spiders, they and their orb webs are around at all times of year, but most visible now, as egg-laying time approaches.

Hoary plantain, still flowering in September, growing in meadowland on Wellcombe Hills, Stratford on Avon.

An oak tree on the edge of the Old Nursery woodland. The undersides of the leaves covered in hundreds of silk button galls. A wasp, or more likely several wasps, had been very busy.

Another selection of mushrooms growing in the Wellcombe Hills nature reserve (see yesterday’s post). These were in a grassy area a little below the high point with its obelisk.

A group of parasol mushrooms, possibly the largest mushroom in this country, were growing along the hillside. Some looked like they had only come up the previous night, while others had caps fully spread.

A short distance further along were a smaller group of white dapperlings.

Comma butterfly gorging on ripe damsons which have fallen from the tree.

Wellcombe Hills, a local nature reserve just a short walk from Stratford on Avon town centre. We took shelter in a small stand of mixed trees when there was a brief shower. This selection of different mushroom species were in the grass under the trees – most of them species I’d never seen before.