Wolves Wild

Every year there’s snowdrops under the trees nearest the house in Bantock Park. Things might be getting a little warmer soon!

Eight or nine goosanders on the upper pool at Perton; sometimes swimming as one group, sometimes separating into smaller parties. Always at the far side of the water from me, fishing very actively, but possibly pausing briefly to display to another member of the gang.

Yuccas seem to be mistiming their seasonal activity in a big way. Outdoor plants in parks and gardens flowering or preparing to flower in the depths of winter. These budding flowers were on yuccas in West Park late in January.

The remnants of a collared earthstar, seen here some ten weeks after I had first noticed and pictured it. The fungus had looked like it had been around for a little time even on that earlier occasion.

Someone had wedged a couple of fatballs in one of the West Park flowering cherries. A pair of nuthatches were enthusiastically eating them, undisturbed as people walked past, or by me standing on the other side of the path, taking pictures.

Velvet shanks are a common fungus in mid-winter. I noticed these on a walk in the Smestow Valley on a cold morning.