Wildlife from Wolverhampton and nearby
The thistles in this large patch were setting off their seeds into the breeze. This was the only picture from a series which actually managed to show one of the seeds heading off.
The thistle patch was in the top corner of the Smestow Valley Reserve’s Barley Field.
The beetle is tiny, but its vivid colours make it easy to spot in contrast to the white of the umbellifer flower it is feeding on.
The bird’s nest fungus is an uncommon fungus which looks like tiny nests holding miniature birdseggs.
A small clump of them were growing near the sandy stiltballs which featured in a post yesterday.
Another mushroom hiding in short grass on a lawn. This is the species most commonly found forming rings, though not here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7794034524
This tiny, elegant mushroom was almost hidden behind a stalk of clover.
A very rare mushroom which grows on well-drained sandy soil. I noticed some growing by a quiet lane near Bridgnorth last year.
After this summer, I half expected they wouldn’t appear this year.
I went back to the spot a few hours ago. The area was much more overgrown than it had been this time last year.
But the stiltballs were, if anything, more abundant this time round.
Some had been drained of colour. These were very old ones, perhaps from last year.
These two teazel flowers were on the same plant. The pictures were taken at the same time, a month ago.
The flowers on the end of the runner bean branch are open or yet to open. Further down, one has already shrivelled, and, right at the lower left, another has already begun to turn into a pod.
A Small Blue butterfly settled to eat on a thistle flower in the middle of a bramble patch in the field behind Compton lock a few days ago.
I couldn’t get to a position with a better angle because of the brambles, and there was a hoverfly which was feeding on the same flower, in front of the butterfly.
The blusher is a toadstool which gets its name because it turns a delicate pink when it is bruised or aging.
These were part of a group growing on the lawn of a block of flats on Compton Road at the end of last month. The species can be visible any time from late summer well into the autumn.
