Wolves Wild

More pictures from the small bank of violets and celandines by the Staffs and Worcs canal.

By mid-March the celandines had joined the violets fully in bloom.

The new year’s growth on a dock plant. Many dock leaves have the characteristic marking of red-rimmed flecks: another viral infection?

Bright yellow pollen on a pussy willow by the Staffs & Worcs canal and paler on a tree in Compton Park (middle picture below).

Normally towards the top of a tallish tree. To me they look like a heap of twigs.

The white goose is domesticated. The paler of the others, perhaps even both others, a cross.

They seem to have taken up residence where the lawn of a house on Windmill Lane meets the Staffs & Worcs canal – handy for demanding bread from people walking the towpath.

Wild arum leaves are often marked with such black flecks – perhaps a virus.

This reed bed and pool looked very tranquil a couple of weeks ago.

Another welcome sign of spring.

These violets and celandines grow on a sunny bank by the Staffs and Worcs canal.

When these pictures were taken in the middle of March the violets were fully in bloom, the celandines still just budding.

A hollow tree stump beside the river Penk on the edge of Brewood. The absence of heart wood will indicate the decay which led to the tree being felled.

This fleecy fungus was growing on bedding compost. I presume the black flecks are the bodies which actually produce the spores.

The slowly decaying trunk of the fallen tree which also featured in the last post. Where the bark has gone the wood is marked by many holes which look like it has been the target for darts practice. In some places there is a range of sizes of the holes (above), elsewhere they look remarkably uniform (below). Presumably they are the product of some form of wood-boring insect.