Wolves Wild

I really should get round to making a video sometime rather than still pictures. Shovellers gathering on West Park lake for the winter feeding, swimming in tight circles with their beaks just below the surface.

A visit to Northycote Farm on a frosty morning. A little time spent watching the many comings and goings in the bird feeder area. Majority of diners were titmice – four species while I was there. Here the most frequent feeders, blue tits and great tits.

Frost-covered mushrooms growing under a tree on a Perton front lawn. Could they possibly be Gymnopus fuscopurpureus? If so, a species so rare they haven’t been given a vernacular name. The only record of this species in the west midlands is in the grounds of Dudmaston Hall, where it no doubt turned up in the annual survey there by the Shropshire Fungus Group.

Four days later than the tiny fungus in moss pictured yesterday. The mushroom had now been joined by an even smaller companion.

In the interim, there had been heavy frosts overnight – crystals can be seen in the moss in these pictures. But it had not produced any visible effects in the fungi.

Tall tree in West Park on a winter morning, the trunk a patchwork of bark and lichen, leading to the tangle of bare branches above.

Heron standing out on a fallen tree extending over the West Park boating lake, a regular spot showing signs of use as a heron toilet. A short time later, after I’ve had a stroll around both arms of the lake, the bird has moved. It’s still on boating lake island. But now at a less prominent place, under trees but still in the position to catch the morning sunlight on a frosty day.