Wolves Wild

This heron was fishing at the upstream end of Wightwick lock on the Staffs and Worcs canal.

Below it considers flying off because of my presence, before settling down again.

This distinctive spring mushroom is uncommon.

The one pictured here was growing in a municipal flowerbed by the Severn – hence the gravel cover.

This bunch of mistletoe, growing on a mountain ash by the river Severn below Bridgnorth, was in flower recently.

This ramson or wild garlic was almost beginning to flower. Once the flowers do come out, the smell is an indication of the relationship to the cultivated culinary plant.

Goslings by the Severn at Bridgnorth. The goose-stepping mother leads a chick.

The goslings swim in a shallow side stream.

Watching over the feeding goslings.

The mother needs to eat too.

Flowers on a sloe bush a few days ago.

On the next bush the buds had not yet opened.

Early ducklings on the upper pool at Badger.

The grouping below is one section of a flotilla which included two broods which were being herded by both sets of parents.

Here is another of them.

I haven’t managed to identify which species yet.

Last weekend the bluebells finally came out in a carpet of flowers.

The view below is of a small wood just outside Rindleford, near Bridgnorth.

And here a view of a smaller patch of the same slope.

Finally from a little wood just a few hundred yards from Boscobel House. Although this picture was taken a couple of days after the others, the flowers are not quite so far out.

The swallows have now arrived from Africa. This pair were resting on the telegraph wires crossing over Badger pool.

One of them is also pictured below showing the brown “throat”. The wing feathers are ruffled in the breeze.

A wasp gathering pollen from a forget-me-not growing in the woods which fringe Highgate Common.

The picture below is of a plant in the same clump, showing the flowers more clearly.

Honesty flowers. The plant perhaps takes its name from the seed cases, which are semi-transparent and show the seed within.