Wolves Wild

Closer and closer views of an earthball clump growing in decaying tree stump.

Magpie on the lookout from a willow branch, surveying Doxey Marshes.

Ice crystals from the first frost of autumn decorating the leaves and berries of a vibernum growing in Compton Rough.

Sowerbyella radiculata fungi, under a leylandii hedge. A rare species which grows in association with conifers. Tt be really certain of identification, a microscope is needed.

Thanks to @lukaslarge for recognising them.

More patterns made by the first hard frost of autumn. The leavesof a patch of bugloss plants.

Grey spotted amanitas appear at any time from August to November on a front lawn I pass often. Usually several appear together, but this autumn there was just this one mushroom. Almost always, they have been well nibbled before I spot them.

Frost crystals on the leaves of nettles, lit by early morning sunshine before it got warm enough to melt the ice.

View across the canal by Compton on the first heavily frosted morning of the winter.

Patches of colour on fallen or felled tree trunks are often the fruiting bodies of whichever fungus rotted and weakened the tree.

Yellow cracked bolete (also called suede bolete) growing under broadleaf trees. Compare the colour visible in the gaps in the crazy paving of the cap to that of the red cracking bolete.

First frost of autumn, and the ice crystals formed preferentially along the veins of these nasturtium leaves.

Five buzzards rising on a late-morning thermal over Paget Road. Carrion crow, perhaps half the size of one of the buzzards, was persistently worrying the hindmost.