The bandstand at East Park has been temporarily removed for some much-needed TLC. While it is gone, the base is left looking forlorn.
Scarlet elf cups
Scarlet elf cups are very distinctive fungi, shaped like small cups with a bright red interior and a pale white or yellowish exterior.
They grow on dead wood from many species of deciduous trees.
Supposedly fairly common in winter and early spring, but often hidden in the vegetable litter under trees, or even underground.
These were growing on a pile of fallen branches a short distance from the Ranger Station in the Smestow Valley LNR.
Wightwick Lock, snow
View looking up the towpath towards Wightwick Lock last month.
Velvet shank on a dead tree
Velvet shanks are one of the most colourful of the common fungi which grow even in the depths of winter.
They are found on tree trunks: often, as here, on dead or dying trees.
The tree these supporting these was at the end of the platform of the old Tettenhall railway station – now the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve Ranger Station.
Monolith, East Park
Erratic overlooking the Dell at East Park, showing more clearly now the roses have been pruned.
Heathers
Heathers seem to be a popular plant in the gardens I’m passing at the moment.
Every variation in colour from white to deep purple.
Sometimes both, planted close together.
Hawthorn, reflected
Hawthorn bush at the edgeof the canal, with a snow-covered Dell Field behind.
Black-headed gulls on an icy lake
Black-headed gull looking like it is standing on water. It’s on a section of the frozen West Park lake where water has spread over the ice.
Young and mature bird at the edge of the ice covering.
Group of five …
… and the largest group also seem to gather where the ice meets the open water.
Icicles on a bay bush
Water dripping from an overflow onto a bay bush during January’s cold spell produced these icicles, some hanging diagonally.
Buzzard on a snowy morning
One of the Smestow Valley buzzards perches in a tree by Dell Field when the snow was around last month. This was the clearest view I could get from the canal towpath.
The tree rising above the others bordering the field.
The panorama from where I was standing. The bird can just be made out as a dot on the skyline, half way between middle and right hand side.