Wolves Wild

Coral fungus growing under the hedge by the towpath near Compton.

Male blackbird on the hunt for food among leaf litter.

The fine condition of his feathers and bright egg-yolk yellow beak show he is in good shape for the approaching breeding season.

The recent high winds have brought down many trees, some of which were vulnerable because of fungal attack.

This tree had come down a few steps from the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve Ranger Station at Newbridge. There was a layer of white from a fungal rot directly under the bark.

A normally dry ditch in a small wood, converted into a pool by the recent rains.

A sage plant with its leaves covered in frost on a cold clear morning at the end of last month.

Scarlet elf cups are small but striking fungi, bright red on one surface, and paler and sometimes cream-coloured on the other. They grow on dead wood.

Last winter, I noticed several patches at different spots in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve, so I’ve been going back fairly regularly to look if they have come back. These are the first I’ve spotted, on a pile of twigs by the Ranger Station at Newbridge.

Perhaps because of the conditions, or perhaps because they had just come out, these were smaller than normal. The “cups” were somewhere between a quarter and half an inch across: it’s normally between one and two inches. Here are pictures of some of the elf cups on the same wood pile last February.

The agricultural land of Solihull includes a lot of small woods. The footpath between Berkswell and Hampton in Arden crosses several, including running along one edge of Sixteen Acre wood.

The trees are tall conifers, spaced with a regularity which can only come from planting. The recent gales had brought one of the trees down by the path.

Frost encrusting the remains of a sea holly.

I couldn’t decide whether I preferred the picture in landscape format, or the one in portrait format.

The greylag geese from the last post: they had been heading for one of the pools left by the persistent heavy rains. As far as I could see, they were drinking the water.

Lead greylag goose and (below) the rest of the group determinedly heading across one of the lawns in West Park.

For their destination, see the next post.

Wetland Lake looking towards the stand of alders which hide the Wolves training ground, with frost on the vegetation.

The bullrush of the previous post can be seen in the centre foreground.

One of the bullrushes at the margin of Wetland Lake, the frost only holding on on its shady side, even though the sun had not been on it for long that morning.