Wolves Wild

On my rare visits to the Doxey Marshes Nature Reserve at Stafford, the same two herons seem to be at the same places every time. This one is yards from the main path running more or less parallel to the River Sow, and never seems disturbed. A large group of walkers pass it: no reaction. Someone passes by having ignored the notices and let their dog off the lead: again no reaction.

The bird is near the path. But it is separated by a ditch which is just too wide to jump, and appears to be too deep to wade. If there were any real threats, it would have time to take off to safety.

Wood chippings mulch often supports one or more species of mushrooms. These small and inconspicuous examples were on the mulch in one of the beds by the ringroad underpass by the Molineux.

Red-coloured bracket fungus – could it be a cinnabar polypore (Pycnoporus cinnabarinus) growing by a footpath along the Avon at Stratford? Such is the only one with similar colour and appearance in my collection of field guides. But the cinnabar polypore was declared extinct in Britain back in 2006.

Carrion crow using a vantage point on a treetop giving views over Doxey Marshes, Stafford.

Yarrow, a meadow flower with a long flowering season, starting in early summer – this picture was taken early in December.

Bricks in the downstream entrance to Wightwick Lock, possibly dating back to when the lock was built in the late seventeen hundreds. Where the bricks have lost a little of their surface over the years, stones can be seen embedded.