Wolves Wild

Yew flowers: these are male flowers, and the tree where they were growing will not have any berries come autumn.

Sparrowhawk on the roof of the Seven Stars pub, Gospel Oak Road, Sedgley, one morning recently. Small, so probably a male.

Baggeridge Country Park: the lower slopes of Toposcope Hill are studded with these ant hills.

Collared earth stars: these fungi have fruiting bodies which usually develop early in winter, but then tend to last for some time. These were half-hidden by the undergrowth and detritus below a hedge, and had been around so log a coating of green algae had time to form around the opening at the apex where the pores are released.

Marsh marigolds, the first ones I’ve noticed this year, starting to open on the pool in Compton Park.

Bare soil on the bank by the Mops Farm Bridge over the Staffs and Worcs canal; the same bank where patches of violets and celandines were flowering.

Small, circular holes in the soil, with bees climbing in and out of the holes: mining bees and their nests.

Possibly the bees included the one gathering pollen from a patch of celandine flowers, ten yards or so beyond the bridge.