Fruit (or are they berries) showing on the same plant as the opening flowers which will produce a fresh years crop. Chinese barberry growing in a front garden.
Author: David
Cherry blossom, blue sky
Spring, so it’s time for flowering cherry trees to put out their flowers. I caught these on a morning when it wasn’t raining for once.
Watercress in a drainage ditch
Watercress growing wild. Indeed, this watercress was growing so wildly that it was completely taking over the drainage ditch it was growing in.
Exeter cathedral, full moon
Views over Exeter cathedral close and the cathedral itself on the night of the February full moon, or possibly one day away from the full moon. At around six o’clock there was still a faint light in the sky, which was completely dark by seven thirty or so.
Tracks in the mud (version two)
More mammal tracks left in soft mud. The dead-end lane which runs past the RSPB Bowling Green Marsh Topsham Reserve is popular with dog walkers. After wet weather there’s often dog tracks left in the roadside mud. But there’s sometimes also traces of other, smaller mammals. Here, what I think was a squirrel.
The top picture closes in on the squirrel’s marks. The one below shows them alongside the much larger prints of dog paws.
Cormorants, Trews Weir, Exeter
Cormorants resting and preening on the protective buoys at Trews Weir on the Exe by Exeter Quays. The “decoration” on the buoys is an indication of how regularly the cormorants and gulls visit.
Tracks in the mud (version one)
The River Clyst is one of the last tributaries to join the Exe estuary before the Exe itself joins the sea. The lowest reach of the Clyst is tidal, with exposed mud at low tide. These pictures were taken after a spell of wet weather, so the mud extended up the banks and in the neighbouring fields.
A steep bare gully was visible leading down from the field to the river. Along its middle, signs that some largeish creature had used the gully as a slide. At the time I thought it was probably a fox or a badger, but an otter could also have been about the right size. Less distinct, at least from my point of view on a footbridge over the river, I thought I could also see prints left by paws in the soft mud.
There was a similar gully directly across the water on the other bank. It too had what looked to me like hints of tracks, but even harder to make out.
Views over a wide estuary
Heather, macro
Close-up on one spike of a purple heather in flower.
Cormorant heading down-river, Exeter Quays
A cormorant swimming on the River Exe by Exeter Quays, heading down-river. A moment later, the bird took off and flew towards the other side of the river to join several of its fellows on one of the protective buoys strung across the weir.
Alexanders, flowering mid-February, Devon roadside
Alexanders plants were really common by the side of roads and lanes in south Devon, and the yellow flowers were beginning to open on some of them in mid-February.
Stuck in the mud (teals, Topsham)
The River Exe directly below the church at Topsham. When the tide is out, as it was here, a wide stretch of very soft and squelchy looking mud is exposed. A pair of teal, wading through the mud, prospecting for things to eat.