Wolves Wild

Dead tree in Wightwick Manor woods. There are nest holes above, possibly woodpeckers’.

Honey fungus spreading high up the trunk shows why the tree died – clumps opf the fungus featured in the previous post.

Honey fungus was until recently thought to be a single species, but it’s now been found there are a handful of closely related species. This may be an explanation for the variability of appearance (some of which is seen in these pictures) and in habitat.

All types live on wood: some only on dead wood. Others live on trees, including some of the economically important ones. These destroy the roots of the roots of the trees they are parasiting, eventually killing the host.

The underground structures of honey fungus may form a single organism for an entire wood or forest. The largest known single organism alive on earth today is a north American honey fungus spread over more than three square miles and thousands of years old.

The fruiting bodies are common. They usually grow in clusters, found on the base or top surface of stumps or on fallen or felled trunks. On living trees they are usually (but not always) low down.

Maples can develop stronger autumnal colours than most other native deciduous trees. These leaves and seeds were changing colours on their trees in September.

House martins circling round and landing by their nests on the last houses before the golf course on Penn Common.

The birds, possibly this year’s young, were beginning to get ready for their long migration when these pictures were taken towards the middle of last month.

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Plump berries on bryonies climbing over roadside hedges, ripening as they pass from green to yellow, orange and finally red.

Peacock butterfly resting on a water mint flower on a warm day recently.

The Heritage Open Days earlier this month gave a chance for a good look around the gardens of Wightwick manor without paying the usual entrance change. The vivid coloured liquidambar was on the slope above the car park; the other trees were on the shore of one of the ponds.

Orange grisette mushrooms growing under a conifer in Bantock Park recently. The colour is initially somewhat stronger than in the related tawny grisettes. Both fade after rain, so become harder to tell apart.

Mass of ripening crab apples on a tree in the front garden of an old black-and-white cottage on the edge of the main village, Berkswell.

The turkey at Northycote Farm, walking around its pen. It might have thought I was a source of extra food.

Long thin figwort growing by a canal. Flowering over, the plant’s seeds are developing as a spider has used the structure as scaffolding for a web.

Tawny grisette mushrooms making their annual appearance growing through grass. Like many mushrooms, they grow in association with trees: this species can be found with a wide variety of deciduous and coniferous ones.