Wolves Wild

Looking across Hinksford Lock on the Staffs & Worcs Canal, with a wooded ridge in the background.

Lactarius britannicus is a species of milk-cap mushroom sufficiently uncommon to lack an English name despite its striking appearance.

Like all milk-caps, a milky liquid seeps out when the flesh is cut or broken. In this species the liquid is initially milky in colour, but then turns yellow – best seen on a handkerchief.

Some reference sources claim that Lactarius britannicus should be identified with Lactarius fulvissimus. The fulvissimus species has a cap which gets pale at the rim .

Long section of a quiet country lane which doubles as the bed of a small stream.

I wasn’t sure that my boots were completely waterproof, so I didn’t look how far the ford carried on beyond the bend.

Subtle autumn colours in this view from the Smestow Valley LNR’s Barley Field.

To the fore, the patch of scrub and shrub in the middle of the Barley Field, known to the Smestow Valley Birders as Chat Clump.

Behind, the trees lining the Railway Walk and growing up Tettenhall Ridge. The evergreens still have their leaves, and some of the broad-leafed trees have tinges of colour as next year’s buds and catkins are already developing.

Ford in Wombourne, where the Wom brook emerges between houses to cross Giggety Lane.

Appaloosa – horse with a leopard-patterned coat standing in a field.

When the trees have lost their leaves for the winter, it’s easier to spot birdsnests.

These large, untidy nests high up are probably magpies’.

View of a section of the 21 locks on the Birmingham Canal. The winding mechanism of Lock 19 is in the foreground. Lock 18 and, much further, the chimney of the city rubbish incinerator in the background.

View across a field to one of the small pieces of woodland just outside Wolverhampton.

I’ve not visited the wood, but it is in an area where lots of brooks run off Pattingham ridge onto the almost level land of a Smestow valley which is much broader than the present-day stream. Damp, marshy ground would be unsurprising.

Huge bunches of keys on an ash tree – and the morning was actually sunny.