Wolves Wild

Starling walking through short-cropped grass, testing whether the early bird does really get the worm.

Delicate toadflax flowers on top of the plant’s long stem, growing on the edge of Fowler’s Park last month.

Pair of beeches growing close together half way up Tettenhall ridge, from a high point on the opposite side of the Smestow valley.

Bumblebee systematically gathering from the remaining flowers of a honeysuckle, which elsewhere had berries which were already ripening.

Unripe (green) and riper (black) elderberries. The main picture shows bunches of the berries at the end of two twigs on the same bush. One must get less sun than the other.

A swan’s long and flexible neck makes preening look easy as it floats gently downstream.

Smooth newt (also known as common newt) – cameraphone pictures taken in low light by Madelaine Loving on the local allotments.

It’s been several years since I last saw a newt, so it is good to know there are still some living nearby.

This one scampered off back into hiding once it had submitted to its mugshot being taken.

The sloes are ripening earlier than usual this year. These are from the same set of bushes shown at earlier this year here and here.

The fingerpost at Autherley Junction is a popular lookout point for birds, here a lesser black backed gull – on another occasion, a heron.

The flowers of this umbellifer seemed to be a big draw for flies one morning – the dozen or so there include at least four different species.

Individual oats visible in their drying protective coverings as they ripen.

Mulberries darkening as they ripen overhead.