Wolves Wild

On the stem at the edge of the clump, this daff was just beginning to open during a brief sunny spell on a morning where one shower followed another.

Courtship dance: a swan pair on West Park boating lake swim in parallel, mirroring each others movements. This was only a short manoeuvre, possibly the species equivalent of a first date. A more extended version of such a routine is the prelude to the mating of a swam pair (they are lifetime monogamous).

Dryad’s saddle growing on a tree on the Smestow edge of the Paddock, Smestow Valley LNR. It’s a spring / summer fungus, but this and several smaller fruiting bodies growing on the same trunk had already been around long enough to be looking tired and elderly.

Dunnock perching on of of the branches of a bush in the Castle Grounds, Bridgnorth.

Sticky buds on the end of one of the twigs of a horse chestnut tree. The larger bud at the end of the twig covers what will open up to form one of the so-called candelabra of flowers. The smaller bud is of a leaf. Just below it, a scar of attachment marks the spot where there was a leaf stalk last year.

Red an green: scarlet elf cup fungi growing through a thick bed of moss. The paler outer surface of the fungi, most prominent here because of the angle of the shot, is where the spores are released from.