Every time I go along the Railway Walk between Newbridge and Compton, the ear fungus growing up the trunk of an elder looks like it has a different texture.
Ice on the then partially-frozen surface of the West Park lake. Bubbles of air below the ice, several inches across, seemed to have been spawning much smaller bubbles.
The first snowdrops I’ve spotted for 2021, splattered with mud thrown up by the heavy rains. Growing in Bantock Park; Bantock House can be seen, out of focus, in the background.
The coverings of the fruits on a spindle tree a little while ago, the fruits now all gone – eaten by birds probably. From a distance the pink remains look a bit like flowers on an otherwise bare tree.
The recent rains have left many wide and deep puddles in fields and parks. Here a pair of the West Park mallards swim by some of the park’s shrubs, drinking the water and dabbling for food as they do so.
A gang of house sparrows have been dominating our bird feeders this winter. Out in some numbers, mainly for the fat balls, they have been discouraging other small birds from coming while they are there. It’s when they have been taking pauses that other species are more embolden to arrive.
The squirrel up the tree is at the side of the Railway Walk; the others from around West Park. I’m not sure whether some of these West Park squirrels are obese from being fed too many peanuts, or pregnant
More fungi which have thawed, showing no effects, after the recent cold spell. These tiny wrinkled clubs were growing in the short grass under a hornbeam on a quiet residential street.