Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
Rotten timber in wood old and new. The first picture is of part of a window frame in Hall’s Croft (aka Shakespeare’s daughter’s house) in Stratford on Avon. If the wood is original it will have been felled over four hundred years ago. The other pictures are of a tree by the Railway Walk at Newbridge, snapped in this winter’s gales after being weakened by the fungal infection which caused its rot.
A revisit to a patch of larger than usual verdigris mushrooms growing on wood chip mulch on the island in Paget Road, two weeks after I first noticed them. Some of the fungi perhaps a bit more nibbled, and one kicked over. But otherwise very little visible change.
Looking down at the view over the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve’s Barley Field on a frosty morning recently. The low ground marks the valley of the Graiseley Brook, culverted and hidden underground, shortly to emerge to add its waters to the Smestow after passing under the canal.
Yet another series of pictures of the Egyptian goose with an on / off presence at West Park. Here it was holding its wings slightly raised, occasionally making a brief move to preen a few feathers.
Two lichens, one yellow-green and the other blue-green. growing in abundance on adjacent twigs.
Two crab apples remaining on the same tree in mid-winter: one appearing still pristine, the other reduced to remnants of flesh, the rest presumably pecked away.
