Wolves Wild

West Park Conservatory recently. The pile of rowing boats, stacked for the winter, is beginning to be toppled by the persistent heavy winds.

One or perhaps two types of lichen growing densely on a branch which had blown off a tree and landed on the top of a hedge by the canal near Castlecroft.

The cup-like structures of the bright green lichen are the ascocarps, which produce the lichen’s spores.

Next year’s catkins on a hazel bush hanging over the Smestow where it briefly comes into sight at Compton.

Can you spot where this architectural feature is in Wolverhampton city centre?

Distant view of Bushbury Hill early on a frosty morning, as seen from Wolverhampton city centre.

A walk along the canal towpath a few days before Christmas produced two or perhaps three different species of earthstar growing under the hedge in a couple of miles between Compton and Castlecroft.

Earthstars are exotic-looking fungi which are not particularly common. Collared earthstars like this one are the easiest to find although most field guides rate them as “infrequent”.

This was one of several fruiting bodies – the others half-hidden by vegetation and fallen leaves. Overnight rain had left it with a small pool of water and a slightly shiny surface.

Two of a group of ten or so fieldfares, resting high in an oak tree.

Fieldfares are so-called “winter thrushes”, birds which breed in Scandinavia, and migrate south to the relative warmth of wintry Britain.

Fieldfares and redwings can be seen in flocks, often with both species in the same, mixed flock. The other winter thrush species arriving in large number is blackbirds.

Ivy seeds swelling as they ripen. The flowers at the front of each clump probably caught the sun to open and get fertilised earliest.

As the seeds ripen in the new year, the green of their covering will darken towards black.

Robin in ash tree, singing to warn other robins off from infringing on its territory.

Clitocybe houghtonii – despite the striking appearance of these mushrooms, they are not common enough to have an English name.

They grow in clumps on the ground in woods, and have white or creamy to yellowish caps and slightly pink gills.

A summer and autumn species: these were ones we were shown in the Northycote Farm woods on the fungi foray back in October.