Wolves Wild

A delicate mushroom lurking in the short grass by the canal towpath near Castlecroft.

The leaves of a bush in a front garden had turned a mixture of vivid reds and yellows.

The bark of the trunk was peeling in a complex pattern.

There was even a deep blue sky – rare enough this year.

The same fly agaric mushroom, now more fully spread than here
or here.

I thought it had been kicked over, but it took much longer to shrivel that it would have if someone had kicked it.

These ageing honey fungus mushrooms were quite large …

but their colour made them blend in with the fallen leaves.

This male blackbird was in bushes not far from the Smestow Valley Reserve Ranger Station. It was a freezing-cold morning, and the bird seemed to want to carry on standing where it was, catching the sun.

This little grebe may have been one of this year’s chicks.

It was on the canal near Compton.

Here it is coming back up from a dive, shaking its head: perhaps to kill the small fish in its beak before it eats.

It was a calm day, so most of the pictures had the bird’s reflection in water which was rippled by its own movement.

It slipped back into the overhanging vegetation.