Wolves Wild

The yellow on these pussy willow catkins in pollen, an indication that they are male flowers.

Tree creeper doing its act creeping up the trunk of a tree in the grounds of Himley Hall. I only had time to fire off this one, less than sharply focussed, shot. Then a large group of dogs and their owners came by, and the bird made itself scarce.

Pair of mallards by the small pool at Bantock Park. I’m pretty sure that they were actually both awake and alert, while giving a good impression of being asleep.

Snow, coming down quite heavily though not lying very much, early this morning.

High Rock sandstone cliff rises high above the Severn valley. A walk starting with a stiff climb by the side of Bridgnorth Cemetery leads to the top of the cliff. Once there, the views over the valley are breathtaking – these were in the direction of the town.

Magpie, possibly mate to the bird after insects (two posts down), one one of the marker poles for the West Park tree trail.

It wasn’t obvious to me, but I was standing too close …

… and a moment later the magpie flew towards me, and used a mode of defence more commonly associated with seabird colonies.

When I first noticed this magpie, it was in a patch of ground-speading ivy, searching for insects. Then it came a little nearer, hopping across the short grass, still after the same prey.

I couldn’t see whether there was any soil for these coltsfoots to grow in, but the flowers seemed to be doing well right by the base of a brick wall.

Muscles tensed, with wings half raised, this swan posture is known as busking, and its purpose is to be threatening.

This is one of the growing number of swans on West Park lake. There’s now regularly over a dozen there, and aggressive moves are becoming more common, even from birds like this one, which is full sized but not yet fully mature.

Vole acting almost like it knew I didn’t have a proper telephoto lens with me.

Swimming around in the canal, climing out of the water onto a twig, or almost submerged as it dives, it is actually there in every picture, if hard to spot.

When the towpath got busy, it disappeared for so long I gave up waiting for it to return. I’d packed away my camera and was walking past the section of path nearest where it showed. Suddenly it sprang out of the water, scuttled past me as it hurried perhaps four feet along the edge of the back, then ducked back down into cover. The view was brief, but very clear.