Category: David

Large bracket fungi growing all along a fallen trunk in Himley Plantation. Their orientation shows these fruiting bodies emerged after the trunk was on the ground.

As the hard time of winter approach, many birds move in from the countryside to the cosier conditions of urban parks. Here a one wigeon, a drake, is on the West Park boating lake. There’s also a shoveller nearby, swimming in a tight circle as it feeds under the shelter of an overhanging tree from the island.

Tiny fungi with orange caps, possibly scurfy twiglet (Tubaria furfuracea). Growing under a holly in a hedge in Bantock Park.

Young moorhen on muddy ground with short grass by the side of West Park lake. It had been probing the soft soil with its beak, searching for invertebrates to eat.

Wood blewit mushrooms growing under garden trees by the side of Richmond Road – possibly brought in on the wood mulch.

Rodent investigating one of the patches of short grass in Bantock Park. But what is it? Much too large for any mouse (or vole or shrew). Ears too big, and snout too pointed for a brown rat. That is (after squirrels) the rodent most likely to be spotted in the open in daylight around town.

Could it possibly be a black rat? They are supposed to be seen occasionally in Britain, but mainly around ports – all of which are a long way from Wolverhampton.