Wolves Wild

Someone was giving the birds bread. This cygnet was so eager to get to the party that it was raising a mass of bubbles as it swam powerfully.

Common inkcap mushrooms growing in the hollow in the middle of a tree stump, as well as among the roots.

The remains of the upstanding trunk of a dead tree in Himley Plantation. A close-up at about eye level shows the wood where the bark has fallen away marked by depressions, the ends of excavations made by bees or other burrowing insects.

Tiny spider which seemed to be hovering unsupported in mid-air. The threads of the web it was hanging from were little easier to see by my naked eye than in these pictures.

Four of the other species growing in the Castle Grounds on the day of my visit. While many fungi come in variations of the standard mushroom or toadstool shape, others such as the coral fungus and stemmed puffball featured here don’t.

Collared earthstars, probably the commonest species among this alien-looking group of fungi. Can sometimes be found right through the winter.

Magpie inkcaps, striking mushrooms, and the ones I actually went to revisit.

Redlead roundhead mushrooms, small but with a bright red cap.

Originally from Australia. First recorded in Britain in 1957, growing on sawdust. Nowadays quite widespread, usually growing on wood mulch.

December isn’t usually a good month for spotting fungi. This year there have been more than usual, perhaps because of the warm and wet weather. The Castle Grounds park at Bridgnorth was particulary rich in diverse species when I visited early this month.

Some of the fungi from there will form the subjects for today’s posts. First up, a readlead roundhead and a magpie inkcap, growing near to one another under an oak. More of these two species in the next posts.

Christmas is coming. I don’t have any pictures of robins standing on a holly bough. The best I can manage is this one of a robin on a post, standing as if auditioning to pose on a card.

Close-ups forming abstract photographs, almost monochrome in browns of different shades and white, and varying textures.

Can you work out what the subject was, and what it was doing?

Bracket fungus, possibly a birch mazegill, growing on a tree stump in Himley Plantation.

It’s almost covered with algae. With the spreading ivy it made a picture in shades of green, relieved only by the fallen leaves.