Wolves Wild

The red-brown of dock seeds, ripening on the plants, contrasting with the green of the other vegetation.

Moorhen chick on the canal just a few days ago. Its fluffy plumage shows it had only recently hatched, so it will need to grow up quickly if it is to survive the winter.

The brilliant glossy red of vibernum fruit or berries, with the more muted reds and greens of the early autumn leaves.

Two ladybirds, with different patterns in the same colour scheme.

I like wildlife which comes to me while I’ve got a nice pint of beer in front of me: in this case on the table where I was sitting in the beer garden of the White Lion in Hampton in Arden.

Carrion crow (possibly a young bird) sitting on a fence post at Northycote Farm, keeping a beady eye out.

Flowering hawkbits growing wild, though the colour suggests they are descendants of a garden variety.

Two shaggy parasol mushrooms, both recently emerged so the caps hadn’t yet spread out to the parasol shape. Good examples of the variability of appearance of this species, they were growing only a few minutes walk apart on Northycote Farm.

It’s five years to the day since I started this blog, with wildlife pictures (mainly) from Wolverhampton and nearby. I very soon got into the routine of covering at least one subject every day.

So far the posts have included over 8,000 images and almost forty short videos (I must get round to doing some more videos some time).

Here to mark the anniversary, a post with a bumper number of pictures.

There is a stand of conifers by an edge of the pitch and putt course at Bantock Park.

Each tree seems to be a different species. Within the space of a few yards, it is possible to see a great variety in the forms of the treescones.

The tiny red flowers of a mass of scarlet pimpernel.

Soon after they had appeared, and already something had been nibbling these fly agarics in West Park. It may have been one of the squirrels.

These toadstools appeared at least three weeks earlier than in previous years, just like those in Bantock Park.

Mallard drake coming out of eclipse – the non-showy plumage adopted after the breeding season. The patches of green feathers on his head are the harbingers of the end of dowdiness.

Sloes up high. From the same patch of blackthorn where the fruit have already featured at earlier stages of ripening.

The only ones left on the bushes near the paths now are the ones out of reach. Those at arms length have been picked, presumably as a flavouring for gin.