Wolves Wild

A speckled wood butterfly by the canal at Compton. It seemed undecided whether to rest on the footpath itself, or on leaves in the pathside hedge.

At first glance, it looked like someone had dropped a couple of golf balls over a garden wall. On a closer look, they were about the right sort of size, but not spherical enough. Earthballs, fungi. Two already out, with a third still forcing its way through the cindery-looking soil.

A red admiral butterfly. It had been feeding for a few days on the last remaining buddleia flowers, at the very top of the bush. So it had been possible to get occasional glimpses of it, and clear enough views for an ID. But no chance of a picture.

Finally it came a little lower, spreading its wings as it rested on a camelia. Here it is.

Goldenrods help keep gardens colourful towards the end of summer, as the main flowering season is drawing to a close. I bent down to close in on the end of one rod for this picture.

A young magpie in West Park which landed only a few yards from me. It seemed determined that I would move off before it did, and that was what happened.

Hoof fungus is quite a common parasite of trees, usually found near the base of an infected tree’s trunk. There were fruiting bodies all round the stump of one of the trees in West Park. It looks like someone has spilled a lot of cocoa powder on the lower of these two fruiting bodies. That’s some of the spores which have been released from the lower surface of the fruiting body above.