Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
Scarlet elf cups: fungi which add a dash of bright colour in the depths of winter. The bright red fruiting bodies are sent out early in the new year, growing on dead, sometimes buried, wood.
I first noticed some on a pile of twigs by the Railway Walk at Newbridge six years ago. Since then, they have been back every January, although in smaller numbers.
Stratford on Avon Tropical Butterfly Farm: an orchid flowering and competing for interest with the many species of butterflies.
Snowdrops, just as the flowers were emerging. These were in the Castle Grounds at Bridgnorth.
Black-headed gulls, some of them just showing the first signs of developing their breeding plumage with the black head feathers, gathering overlooking a beer garden and the river at Stratford on Avon.
By the time this post is displayed, they might actually have arrived. But as I write this there have been no reports of this winter’s waxwing eruption reaching Wolverhampton, though a small group paid a flying visit to Codsall.
So here are pictures of the last time they arrived in some numbers, in trees by the canal at Compton back in 2013.
Velvet shanks – fungi which like the coldest months of winter, usually quite easy to spot, bright yellow / orange growing on tree trunks and stumps. I’ve not actually managed to see any yet this year, so here is a picture from 2010.