Wolves Wild

Goose hoping to be fed, so it came close enough for me to get its portrait.

Looking downstream along the River Avon at Stratford, with the riverside church looming out of the mist.

The pictures I post here have normally only had the most limited of digital editing: colour adjustment (including the occasional black and white); spot removal, and cropping.

This picture is the exception. A nearby gull intruded one out of focus wing into the left of the picture as it flew overhead. I had to use cloning to restore the continuity of the willow foliage to the left of the church.

The bird feeders at Northycote Farm are always well patronised, especially as the harder weather begins to set in.

On a recent visit, it only took a few minutes to grab these pictures of a nuthatch, coal tit and blue tit eating.

Bridgnorth castle ruins towering above one of the magpie inkcaps, which was surrounded by fallen oak leaves and acorns.

Inkcap species, including the magpie inkcap, shed their spores and then their caps disintegrate into a black gooey mass from the rim inwards, a process called deliquescence. About half done for this mushroom.

The goo was sometimes used to make an ink.

Magpie inkcaps, striking black and white mushrooms, are mainly found in southern England, and are not particularly common even there.

Some appear in the autumn in the grounds of Bridgnorth castle. I got quite enthusiastic about taking pictures on visits in mid-November. I don’t know if they are still there – they were showing up to the first week in December last year.