Wolves Wild

Spider’s webs stretched along the tops of plants growing at the edge of the canal, early enough in the morning that the autumn sun hadn’t yet had time to warm away the dew. These webs didn’t have any sign of the spider living in them.

Recently emerged fly agaric mushrooms under the trees at Bantock Park, not yet disturbed either by human vandals or hungry animals.

Heron on the railing round West Park boating island, turning its back to avoid the people out for a stroll on a sunny day.

The strongly orange colour of the cap of orange grisette mushrooms as they are just beginning to emerge from the soil. Pictures of more mature specimens of the same species taken at the same time and place here.

xEvery autumn, little grebes return to the canal between Oxley and Wightwick to overwinter before heading off again in the spring to their breeding territories.

This was the first one I spotted this year, busy fishing not far from the water bridge.

Roll rims are common fungi in summer through to autumn, growing in grassy areas in association with trees – a wide variety of deciduous or coniferous species.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/21442996263

Ivy, one of the few plants still flowering into the autumn, attracts a lot of insects. This comma butterfly was on a bush which also had red admirals and a lot of bees.

Early morning dew still remaining as fine drops on bullrush leaves. The smallest droplets show traces of one or another colour of the rainbow.

Lawyers wig (shaggy inkcap) when about half the cap had disappeared once the spores had been released. The same mushroom was previously pictured when it had just about grown to its full height.

Shovellers: ducks with beaks which widen to a spoon shape as they get to then end. They use them to plough through the water, dabbling for food just below the surface.

This pair have been on the West Park lake recently. The male was still in eclipse plumage, and not easy to distinguish from the female.

As the name implies, common darter are among the most frequently seen dragonflies, around from late summer well into the autumn.

They also have a habit, helpful for identification and photography, of resting on a horizontal surface and staying put if they are approached carefully.

This one perched on nettles growing at the edge of the canal at Castlecroft.

Milk caps are a group fo mushrooms which exude a watery fluid, often white in colour, when cut or broken. Fresh false saffron milk caps look like the commoner saffron milk cap, to the extent that they were thought to be a mere sub-species until less than fifty years ago.

The pale blue discolouration is not mould. It’s a normal colour change in aging false saffron milk caps.