Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
The ruins of White Ladies Priory are in Shropshire, down a quiet country lane between Bishops Wood and Cosford.
It’s a National Trust property, linked to Boscobel House at the Bishops Wood end of the lane. Boscobel was originally a hunting lodge built on the Priory land.
There is free access to the ruins, down an often muddy dirt track off the lane.
Porcelain fungus are delicate-looking, often pure white mushrooms.
They grow, usually in clumps, on beech trees – sometimes quite high up.
These were more accessible because they were on a fallen trunk.
West Park squirrel pausing, ready to dart after peanuts.
Common funnel caps are medium-sized mushrooms. Pale brown, with a cap which dips down and darkens towards the centre,
They are indeed fairly common, and often found in woodland, like these which were growing in Himley Plantation.
Honey fungus is a very common fungus. It is very damaging economically: it is a parasite of many kinds of trees, killing them when it infests them.
It is very variable in form, probably different several species .
These had a surface which looked roughened.
The first three pictures are of the fungus on a (still) living tree in Baggeridge Country Park; this picture of a felled trunk in the grounds of Himley Hall.
Buttercap mushrooms growing by the footpath which runs along a short section of the ring road near Chapel Ash.
Fly agaric mushroom which only just appeared. It had grown enough for the veil originally surrounding the cap to split, now being the white flecks or “warts”
The bright red isn’t evident in ones which are even more recent.
Still more of the fly agaric mushrooms which have been showing in many spots this year.
These were under trees right by a path in Bantock Park.
The ones shown here had been out for some time in damp weather. Rain washing had muted some of the reds in their caps.
Someone had kicked one over, offering a view of the gills.
Golden spindles are fairly common, and bright, fungi in various shades of yellow. But their small size means they are easily missed even in short grass.
More of the fly agaric mushrooms which are popping up all over the place this year.
These were in a bed of canes by Chapel Ash roundabout, where they crop up most autumns.
