Wolves Wild

Yellow-legged gull on a rock at the edge of the Med, preparing to pounce on something it had spotted to eat.

Brown roll-rim: common in woodlands and grassy areas from late summer to late autumn – a do not in any circumstances eat any part of this species fungus.

Posts for the coming days will be a mixture of autumn fungi and pictures taken on a recent holiday in the south of France, mainly in and around the town of Cassis, a seaside resort in the Calanques National Park, east of Marsellie.

Here an unidentified dragonfly, some kind of chaser, resting on vegetation overhanging the pool in the town’s small park.

Butter waxcap growing in short damp grass. Waxcap mushrooms peak in the autumn, with many species having bright unusual colours.

The unmistakable showy colours of a mandarin duck male.

Yet more to look out for this autumn: orange peel fungus does indeed look rather like discarded scraps of orange peel at first glance.