Wolves Wild

Lone oak tree at the far side of a field of winter wheat. There is a distant view of Perton ridge forming the skyline.

Views from footpaths between Trescott and Perton, looking up to Perton ridge and looking back to the broad valley of the Smestow Brook.

Remains of a silver birch tree with a birch polypore (also known as razor strop fungus).

Pair of mature beech trees standing either side of one of the paths through the woodland on the continuation of the avenue leading to Chillington Hall.

Shaggy parasol, recently emerged. Later the cap spreads, forming the parasol shape of one of the larger common mushrooms.

Red waterlily still flowering the end of last month in a pond in Penkridge.

Two toadstools which grow in association with birch trees. A brown birch bolete and a fly agaric which had come up within a few inches of each other under one of the silver birches of Bantock Park.

Chinese lanterns, a decorative garden plant. The source of their name is obvious.

Field guides rate the frequency of the pipe club fungus as “occasional” or “rare”. Perhaps that’s because its elegant fruiting bodies aren’t easy to spot even when they are growing in short grass.

Larva of a ladybird almost dead centre on an oxeye daisy. The insect has perhaps had its final moult before it becomes one of the first generation of adults next spring.

Tiny, pure white mushrooms, half-hidden even in recently cut grass. Snowy waxcaps are a common mushroom of chemical-free lawns

Bright red berries of a bryony looking like large gems strung along a necklace as the plant climbs over the hawthorns in a hedge.