Wolves Wild

Mazegills, bracket fungi which grow on the trunks of trees. Their undersides look like a complex maze. That’s the gills where the spores are released. This may be an oak mazegill (Daedalea quercina), on a fallen trunk in Himley Plantation.

Growing on the front lawn in front of a block of flats, the blusher. A mushroom which turns pale pink when cut or bruised.

Carrion crow, trying to get some of the grain that someone had scattered for the ducks and geese at West Park, but also keeping a very careful watch on me as it stepped across the grass.

The effects of frequent bouts of heavy rain on one originally brightly coloured mushroom species. These fly agarics first lost the white “warts” on their caps, washed away. Then the bright red of the caps began to be washed away as well, fading to dull shades of brown in the oldest specimens.

A swam coming in to land on the water of West Park lake, making quite a splash as it does so. Seconds later, one of the resident greylag geese washes itself, submerging several times, then flapping its wings vigorously to shake off the drops as it resurfaces.

These fungi are white saddles (Helvella crispa) – I, for one, wouldn’t want to ride on any saddle modelled on their contorted shapes. These were growing under trees and bushes at the edge of a car park.