Pictures taken on a stroll along the Severn between the Welsh and English bridges on a sunny Sunday morning. Early morning mist softened the views of the autumnal trees on the far bank of the river from the bankside path through Quarry Park. As the mist cleared, the path was closed off a little short of the destination because of flooding.
Giant clitocybe mushrooms which formed a segment of a fairy ring right by the entrance of Himley Plantation nearest to Wombourne. Impressive when each of the mushrooms can have caps six inches or so in diameter.
In January 2017 I visited Shrewsbury. On a walk along the Severn I noticed a Carolina drake hanging out with a group of mallards and a pair of swans at what was evidently a popular spot for feeding the birds.
Flash forward to earlier this month. Again I had a stroll along the Severn between the Welsh and English bridges. There was (presumably) the same Carolina. Still looking in fine fettle. Still keeping company with a group of mallards and a pair of swans. In exactly the same small patch of the river where it had been almost three years previously.
Another delicately and distinctively coloured fungus spotted on a recent walk in the Woodland Trust’s Himley Plantation, where we were looking for fungi before they disappeared with the first hard frosts of the season.
This is the yellow shield (Pluteus chrysophaeus), or possibly a closely related species. Cap less than an inch across, yellow but hard to spot in deep shade. Sufficiently uncommon that it doesn’t figure in any of the collection of field guides we have.
Black swan which turned up on the Severn at Shrewsbury early this month when the water was high. It was hanging out with a pair of mute swans and some mallards near Porthill footbridge. The river bank there is handy for the Quarry’s play area, and a prime spot for birds to get fed.
Pair of puffballs among the leaf litter in the fungi-friendly Woodland Trust Himley Plantation.