Wolves Wild

Not the Gornal legend: these pigs with personality were graffiti in a quiet street on the edge of Brussels, city of comics, some years ago.

Some garden ornaments, some gatepost decorations (an alternative to the usual lions or eagles) and a couple of bronze statues in the form of lambs and piglets.

Animated moose (or perhaps elk or reindeer) on one of the beer stalls in the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market.

The larger than life-sized head was making a return after missing the last year or two.

It’s Christmas, so it’s time for a change of pace. The next few posts won’t be pictures of actual wildlife. Instead, they will be of portrayals of animals that have caught my eye on my travels.

For starters, the Birmingham Bull Ring bull. The statue gets a costume for the Christmas season.

Here is this year’s. For comparison, check out the earlier posts with the 2013 costume, and showing the bull unadorned.

Carrion crow on Bushbury Hill, checking whether I am getting too close for it to carry on searching for food in the short grass.

Tiny mushroom growing on moss, and just peeping through the short grass. The cap all looked the same shade of yellow – perhaps the whitish spokes heading towards the rim are a product of overexposure.

The current turkey at Northycote Farm, the replacement for the bird killed by a fox after vandals wrecked its pen a year ago. Perhaps characterful rather than handsome.

This shot caught the bird as its nictating membrane was covering the eye. Sometimes called the third eyelid, it lets birds protect their eyes while still partially seeing their surroundings.

Growing on the wood mulch in the Sensory Garden at Northycote, redlead roundheads are small, brightly coloured mushrooms.

See this earlier post for more on their exotic origins.

Jay spending a long time on the ground in the Smestow Valley Barley Field. It was busy eating: lowering its head then coming up with a bunch of loose straw, possibly for insects in the straw.

I wasn’t far away, but the bird seemed fine with carrying on eating. Perhaps it felt safer because it was half-hidden behind tussocks of grass.

Hazel catkins beginning to develop earlier this month – and even a tiny bud which will develop into one of next year’s leaves.

Little grebe in the canal at Compton. Probably Smestow Birder Geoff’s bird still in summer plumage.

Every time a dog passed, the bird dived or retreated into the bankside vegetation. This was the only shot I could get without disturbing it.

Small buzzard, possibly one of this year’s birds. It was sitting in the alders by the Compton Park pool, when it decided it didn’t like me crossing the footbridge, and headed off for a quieter spot.