Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
Green shield bug, sitting on an ivy leaf in a mixed ivy/hawthorn hedge. It is beginning to turn into its winter colour, brown.
A post from 2010 shows another, browner, bug resting on berries.
When this one saw me looking at it, it moved to a less exposed position.
Thanks to rockwolf for correcting my mistaken identification of the species.
Comma butterfly resting on an ivy leaf, discreetly warming in the autumn sun.
I douldn’t decide between the picture with the closer view, or the one with more of the insect’s surroundings.
Two of the fast-growing Gloucester Old Spot piglets at Northycote Farm snuffling through squelchy mud in search of bits of their feed which had got buried.
Some of the piglets had been doing exactly the same on my previous visit to the farm.
Canada goose stretching as it bathes in the drinking trough of the duck pen at Northycote Farm.
Moments earlier, one of the ducks had been bathing alongside it, only to get out of the water as I reached for my camera.
The contorted position of the goose only lasted for a few seconds.
Verdigris mushrooms get their name from their green colour, which looks more like the patina formed on copper than the shade of any other living thing.
The colour is strongest on young fungi. Then it fades, or washes away in rain.
They have been one of the species which has been more common than usual this autumn. Today’s pictures feature some of the verdigris mushrooms from a group growing a few yards from Compton Lock, and a single individual which was by one of the hedgerows on Northycote Farm.
Ash keys in profusion hanging down from twigs on a tree by the canal at Catlecroft.
Apparently some people mistake this perfectly healthy stage which happens every autumn for the shrivelled and darkened leaves which are a symptom of the attack of the fungus which causes ash dieback.
Huge bolete fungus – one of the caps was over a foot in diameter.
Boletes are fleshy mushrooms that have pores on the underside of their caps rather than gills.
They may have been ceps (also known as penny buns, Steinpiltz), a wild mushroom favoured by gourmets. If so, these should still have been avoided. They were growing on an island in the middle of a busy road. Fungi concentrate any pollutants in the environment where they are growing.
Fly agaric mushrooms – several posts have already covered the changes as these matured, most recently here.
The rims of the caps have now risen so much they form small bowls which caught the rainwater.
The widows of an office building are reflected on the surface of the water in the top picture.
One of the advantages of the shorter day length at this time of year is that dawn and sunset happen at more civilized hours.
This picture was taken a few minutes before dawn, looking across the new pool in Compton Park.
Few people would guess that Wolverhampton city centre is only about a mile further on in the direction the camera was pointing. But at that time of the morning the only company was a few people walking their dogs.
Black-headed gull on the landing stage of the Stratford on Avon ferry, hunching up to try to see off a group of mallards.