Wolves Wild

Moss was covering this and several other bracket fungi on the stump.

This ear fungus was growing on a tree stump near the pools by Donington church. Other growth on the same stump tomorrow and Wednesday.

The oak behind Boscobel House which is claimed to be a descendant of the one where Charles II hid after the Battle of Worcester. From the road the tree does not look likely to last much longer.

One of the first sights on heading for Wolverhampton city centre from the railway station, the Prince Albert is somewhat overshadowed by the bulk of the Chubb Building.

Two of the four ducks on the duck pond at Boscobel House recently had a rich dark green plumage.

This side arm comes off the Birmingham canal just by Bilston Road.

Smaller, but otherwise similar to pigeon footprints. Wood pigeon prints are larger again. The prints are most reliably distinguished by seeing which bird actually made them!

These lichen were growing on the same bough of a small oak tree by the pond at Boscobel House recently.

Velvet shanks are one of the few winter fungi. The fruiting bodies can survive freezing and then still product spores.

This clump was growing on a stump, the normal habitat for this mushroom.

Former warehouses backing onto the Birmingham canal near Horseley Fields. Pictured within minutes of each other. The one building was by an unfrozen stretch of the canal; the other, just around a corner, by a stretch where the ice cover was still all but complete.

Footprints left by a grey squirrel in a thin layer of snow. More on the bird prints which are also there in a couple of days.