Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
An impressively large fish swimming in the pool at Wightwick Manor.
Today’s pictures (and a few more to follow) were taken last weekend, when there wasn’t the normal entrance charge. There are normally a couple of weekends each year where the National Trust give free entrance to their sites.
Canada goose on its nest on a small island in the pool at Wightwick Manor.
It was possibly brooding eggs while its mate patrolled on guard.
The early evening spring sunshine was bright enough to shine through the petals and leaves of these daffodils.
A large, untidy nest towards the top of a tree: it belongs to a pair of magpies, and was still visible because the long cold spell has delayed the onset of spring.
Mistlethrush perching on a twig on the edge of Compton Park.
It didn’t seem worried that I was only a few yards away.
The distinctive cluster of the flowers of butterburs, which appear before the leaves.
Spring is finally getting going. The buds were beginning to appear on lime trees last week.
View from the bridge where Windmill Lane crosses the canal at Wightwick.
King Alfred’s fungus (alias coal fungus or cramp balls) grows on trees or dead wood. It does indeed resemble pieces of coal or, perhaps, buns which have been allowed to burn by a fugitive king.
The layers, visible in the partially eaten example above, mark phases of growth, like tree rings.
Like the horse’s hoof fungus in the previous post, cramp balls are inedible, but the dried interiors can be used as tinder.
A mature specimen of this bracket fungus.
Pieces from the interior of such a fungus were being carried by Ötzi the Iceman when he died. It can be used as tinder to help in lighting fires.