Wolves Wild

Nature occasionally presents photographic subjects in shades of one colour without the need for manipulation. The ripening seeds of this umbellifer were one.

Sandy stiltball, a strange and uncommon fungus which comes up at this time every year by a narrow lane in Shropshire.

Heron hunting at the edge of Island Pool in Baggeridge Park. The structure just visible at the left of the picture is one of the jetties used by anglers.

Bullrushes beginning to flower at the end of last month. These were more of the vegetation by the edge of the new pool in the Smestow Valley.

Galls are growths on plants, often trees, created when some species of wasps lay their eggs there. Oak trees suffer from several types. Knopper galls affect acorns.

Knopper galls were first recorded in Britain in the 1960s, but have now spread across the mainland.

On one sunny day last month, a thistle patch on Barley Field was attracting a variety of butterflies. A meadow brown.

A tortoiseshell

Peacock

Tortoiseshell showing its underwings

Gatekeeper

Another tortoiseshell

A small white

Sideways view of the meadow brown

An older small white.

Thistles are among the dominant species in Compton Rough. Here they were almost ready to start releasing their seeds.

Closer view of one of the death caps featured in the earlier post. The areas where the interior of the cap are exposed show marks of gnawing by a small mammal, probably a woodland mouse species.

This death cap had come up more recently than the grouping in the previous post – probably only a few hours before the picture was taken.

Death caps are, fortunately, not a very common mushroom. But they are, as the name implies, very poisonous.

They are responsible for the majority of cases of fatal mushroom poisoning worldwide, mostly when they are collected by people who confuse them with other, edible species.

The grouping of death caps which feature in today’s posts are the first I ever knowingly saw.