Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
Enthusiasts for DIY sloe gin are in for a disappointment this year. The weather earlier this year meant that very few blackthorn flowers set fruit.
Today’s pictures are two views of the same sloe. They were taken at the same time as the one featured the day before yesterday. That sloe was on the next bush. They were the only two berries I noticed in a quick look around a patch of bushes which are normally covered in sloes at this time of year.
These tiny mushrooms were growing at the base of a tree trunk.
Bryony berries beginning to ripen (above) and an image in shades of green (below).
These thistle seeds hadn’t quite succeeded in getting away from their parent plant.
Moorhens are normally the most timid of the local waterbirds. Those living on our canals prefer to keep the width of the water between themselves and walkers.
The adult bird here was the first I ever remember swimming towards me as I came down the tow path.
It became clear that the bird was still feeding four well-grown chicks. This task is normally shared by the adult pair, but there was no sign of a second adult here.
The birds were right by Newbridge, and were probably used to getting a share of the bread brought for the resident ducks.
A group of half a dozen ducks were indeed lurking nearby, though they seemed to have a better sense that I wasn’t going to feed them.
A reed growing beside the canal at Castlecroft had been used as the scaffolding by a spider building its web.
One of this year’s sloes, still green as it just begins to ripen.
The remains of what is probably a hoverfly trapped in a spider’s web, now wrapped up and stored for later consumption.
A dragonfly pauses from its hunting of smaller insects flying over the pool in the garden at Wightwick Manor.
This picture was taken in September 2009, when there was free entry to the property over the Heritage Open Day weekend.
The photo is one of the illustrations to my article in the current edition of Wolverhampton Magazine.
One of a large group of mushrooms growing on a pile of wood chips – a favourite habitat for many species of fungi.