Wolves Wild

Female blackbird feeding on the berries of a cotoneaster growing in the garden of Wolverhampton City Archives (Molineux House).

Sparrows gathering, mid-morning, in bushes by the Severn at Bridgnorth. There must have been at least forthy of them, all chattering to each other.

Young heron on the hunt in a patch of reed on the shore of Sandfields, by the canal at Compton. It was watchful but stayed in position even though there were three of us watching it from various points on the towpath opposite, and a couple with a small dog passed by on the footpath just behind it.

Tiny mushrooms growing in the moss on the base of a tree trunk in West Park.

Magpie inkcaps in Castle Grounds, Bridgnorth, gradually spreading from the spot under a mature oak where they first appeared. For several years they have all been coming up in the same patch of earth, well covered in wood chip mulch under a clump of trees. This year there were a few still in the original place. But there have been more in flower beds on the other side of a path.

Goosander pair, probably the same birds featured in the previous post, now moved a hundred yards or so upstream of the Severn bridge, continually diving as they fished together.