Wolves Wild

A normally small side stream joins the river Penk in the Pendeford Mill reserve. This year the stream was decidedly swollen after the persistent heavy rain.

Other mushrooms also form rings as they spread out from year to year, but these are the ones most commonly found growing in a circle.

This hoverfly was so busy gathering nectar from the umbellifers in Barley Field that it let me get really close. Some grains of pollen are sticking to its body, and my reflection can just about be made out in its eye.

The Pendeford Mill Local Nature Reserve lies by the river Penk as it leaves Wolverhampton.

There’s an open day every July, and the place is well worth a visit.

This year the foul summer meant that it was extremely wet underfoot, and the insects making the best of the conditions were mosquitoes. I came away with more bites than pictures.

The first two views are of the same large pool, the first beyond the entrance to the reserve. The balsam which is present in the second picture is spreading in much of the site.

The weed covering the surface of the pool in the final picture is something else which seems to have taken advantage of this year’s conditions.

Shaggy parasols are one of the largest native mushrooms, distinctive with their scaly cap.

A group of them appear regularly at this time of year by one of the entrances to West Park.

This rather unprepossessing flower was one of the many Oxford ragworts thriving in Barley Field, Smestow Valley.

The magpie further from the camera is one of this year’s chicks, now half grown. The nearer bird is one of its parents.

Lambs’ lugs are also known as lambs’ ears – another flower which caught my eye in someone’s front garden.

Rosebay willowherb flowers beginning to open – those lower on the stem coming out first.

This stalk of grass was one of the survivors of a recent mowing, which helped it stand out more than usual.