Wolves Wild

The scruffy feathers of this feeding swan mark it out as a young one.

These oyster mushrooms were growing from the sawn-off stump of a birch tree in a garden.

The soil was built up, perhaps level with my chest. That’s why these views show the undersides of the mushrooms and there are better views if the gills than the caps.

I don’t know whether it is cause or effect, but the mushrooms are sprouting from there the bark has peeled back from the stump.

Oyster mushrooms can vary in colour and be seen at any time of year.

As a tributary of the river Worfe passes through the Dingle at Badger, it is first held back to make a pool which is larger than either of the two pools in the centre of the village.

The water is then released to form one of the few waterfalls which can be seen in the vicinity of Wolverhampton (above).

The pool was well covered with surface pondweed in mid-February. Notice the tracks where some water bird has been, thinning the weed in its wake.

These bright velvet shank mushrooms and the crowd of small whitish brackets were growing on a felled tree trunk in the grassy area between the Perton estate and Wightwick.

This year’s new leaf growth on this thistle is both spiky and downy.

I was struck by the paint of the industrial building, reflected in the canal, looked like a too-perfect blue sky on what was actually a gloomy grey day.

The picture was taken with my back to the remnant of the Bradley Arm which goes off from the main line here. The Arm, currently a dead end, was Brindley’s original line of the canal.

Snowdrops, and purple crocuses somewhat further away, taken a few days ago.

A pair of swans feeding by a reed bed on the Birmingham canal in Deepfields. The traffic on the bridge carrying the Black Country Route was rumbling nearby.

This hawthorn, growing by the side of the Staffs & Worcs canal near Compton, is shaped as formerly part of a waterside hedge.

This appears to be a ball of moss growing on a hawthorn bush. Is it a birds’ nest?

The profusion of catkins on this hazel looked like a waterfall or pouring rain.