Wolves Wild

Poplar still showing its bare wintry outline recently. Its catkins have been and gone, and the leaves are yet to appear.

Black headed gull standing on the frozen West Park boating lake last weekend. The head feathers aren’t black, but dark brown.

Buds about to open on a sycamore tree in Springvale Park, and the tree itself.

Horned sheep, possibly soays, keep a careful eye on me.

They were in the field opposite the entrance to the Pendeford Mill Nature Reserve.

This camellia flowers early every year, but this year’s cold must have been a shock to its system!

Distant view of an oak tree growing by the Smestow Brook. The reddish colour is from the buds which are about to open.

Re-visit to the beaked earth star shown here, now emerging from snowy debris under its hedge.

Two views of the same beaked earth star, which was growing several hundred yards farther out into the Staffordshire countryside than the fungus featured in the previous post.

Beaked earth stars have a grooved “chimney” at the top where the spores are released. They are quite rare, but were growing in two different spots by the canal towpath near Castlecroft.

These are different species of earth star fungus.

They were all growing by the same section of canal towpath, and seen on the same day.