Author: David

Catkins at the end of a twig on a silver birch.

Male and female catkins grow on different trees. The male ones start off looking furry, and give the species its name, before producing the pollen and turning as in the upper picture.

The catkins on the female trees will eventually become the seeds.

Not local, but on the river Avon at Stratford.

From a distance it looked like a couple of miniature boulders; closer, the fungus seemed rather dried up as it grew on the cut surface of the stump of a large tree by one of the footpaths on the Perton estate.

A lot of butterflies were around during the warm spell at the end of March. This comma spent some time warming itself resting in the middle of a small bed of nettles.

It’s just about visible in the centre of the picture!

Half-opened flowers on a crab apple tree. This one is just behind Compton Lock.

The Smestow valley pair were rising on a thermal near to Barley Field. As usual, I only managed to get the camera out just before they gained enough height to fly off in search of prey.

There was a mass of blossom on this fruit tree at the end of the warm spell in March.

More misericords, the first two again from Stratford. The strange-looking animal between the two monsters above is a dromedary, presumably carved by someone who had never seen a camel. The fine stag below is being ridden by a naked woman for some reason.

The lions’ heads misericord is from another Holy Trinity church, this time in Coventry city centre.

Once again from Stratford church. Owls, like this fine carving of one in flight, regularly crop up as the subject of misericords. To the medieval church they did not symbolise wisdom, but on the contrary malicious ignorance.

The eagle in the centre here has an infant in its claws. Presumably again some kind of symbol, but I don’t know what. Apparently the posture of the lion, on the left, indicates that it is meant to be cowering.

These fourteenth-century wood carvings are from Holy Trinity Church, Stratford – they are just a few steps from the grave of Shakespeare.

Many of the other carvings depict low-life scenes. These show stylised leaves or (above) double roses.