Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
Pictures from another visit to a group of fly agaric mushrooms growing under birch trees in West Park.
These first two are different views of the same individual.
Flat or upturned caps on somewhat older individuals.
Faded (or rather rain-washed) colours, well-nibbled – probably by squirrels. This one had been around still longer.
Blackening waxcaps turning from yellow to black.
Look for these, and other waxcap species, in short grass.
Waxcaps are a genus of small, often strongly coloured, mushrooms
These blackening waxcaps show on the lawn in front of a block of flats every autumn.
Spider wrapping threads of silk around a hoverfly which had been caught in its web.
The victim had first been carried to the edge of the web.
This action was taking place on vegetation right by the path through Baggeridge Country Park.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/10218021575
Two or three different types of lichen growing on the bark of a sycamore in Bantock Park.
Clump of tiny puffballs which do indeed look like they are covered in spines, nestling between roots at the base of a tree trunk in Bantock Park.
CORRECTION: identified by Lukas Large as possibly scalycaps
Ripening yew berries high in the tree, seen against a cloudless autumn sky.
Fly agarics: one of the most distinctive and most noticeable mushroom species.
I’ve been a regular in West Park for almost forty years, and never seen them there before.
These are from the second patch I’ve seen there this autumn.
It’s been a good season for several fungi species.
Fly agarics are one of the species which have been more widespread and numerous than normal.
They have started appearing a bit earlier than usual as well.
Clump of sulfur tuft mushrooms in West Park. They grow on dead wood, though this is often hidden underground.
More horse chestnuts taking on autumn colours earlier than the other native trees. These were on the Upper Green at Tettenhall.
Water boatmen: long-legged insects skimming across the surface of still water, supported by surface tension.
