Wolves Wild

Insect resting on a wall. Its antennae were being bent to the right by the breeze.

Remains of a plant growing on the bank of the Penk at Perton. I couldn’t get close enough to examine it properly. But as it was at least ten feet tall it is a reasonable guess that it was a giant hogweed.

A few yards further down the path I saw a member of another invasive species, a mink. It disappeared back into the bushes much too quickly for me to get a picture.

Squirrel which was rushing round then pausing for a brief dig with its front paws. I thought it was busy burying nuts.

Then it dug where I had a clearer view. It fetched something out of the ground and ate it.

Three views of the same butter waxcap, showing the differences made by small changes in camera angle. All three shots were taken low down, close to the small mushroom, this one level at cap height.

Looking down from slightly above, and up from slightly below the cap.

The mushroom was one of those we were shown on last month’s fungi hunt on Northycote Farm.

Poison pie is a mushroom which lives up to its name.

Whatever has been nibbling this one, probably a squirrel, will have had a badly upset stomach.

Aging spiny puffball fungus which had lost its spines. The soil on the bottom left shows where it had also been uprooted before I got to it.

Only a few of Gloucester Old Spot piglets born in the spring of 2013 on Northycote Farm can still be seen there.

This one was digging deeply in a muddy area of its enclosure in search of something the last time I visited the farm.

Trooping funnels are mushrooms which tend to be found in grass or leaf litter in clearings, here the lawn in front of a block of flats.

The cap starts off pointed. As it expands, the rim is raised. Eventually it becomes funnel shaped.

As the name implies, they are normally found in groups.

Decorative berries on a dogwood shrub in a front garden: a dense cluster of snow white berries tipped purple, growing on a red stem.

This shrub had variegated green leaves.

Coral spot is a common fungus which can be found on dead or dying wood, or branches which are dying back on living trees.

These were on a bough overhanging the stile from the Railway Walk onto the White Oak Drive housing estate.

Collared earth stars belong to a genus of fungi which spread their spores through a hole in the top of the fruiting body. The spores get their energy from raindrops falling on the fungus.

Collared earth stars are uncommon: other types of earth star are even less common.

These two were the largest and most accessible of a group which were growing near the former Compton station on the Smestow Valley Railway Walk.

Sweet chestnut with its showing through its spiky outer covering, lying where it fell among the leaf litter in the woods at Northycote Farm.