Category: David

Council budget cuts seem even to have hit the supply of provisions in the bird feeders at Northycote Farm. A single bluetit and long-tailed tit were still on the feeders, searching for any remaining scraps.

Flower buds on the point of opening on some kind of winter-flowering cherry tree in the grounds of Bridgnorth Castle last month.

Cross-billed jackdaw at Northycote Farm. The twists in its beak must give it some difficulties in feeding. But I first noticed and pictured the bird back in March 2015, when it already looked full-grown and as healthy as it seemed in these recent shots. The pickings must be so good at Northycote that it is able to thrive despite its bill.

Indeed, it seemed to be spending most of its time in the company of another (more camera shy) jackdaw, so it may even have found a mate.

King Alfred’s cakes, coal fungus, cramp balls, or, to get formal, Daldinia concentrica. All different names for this distinctive fungus, which grows on dead or decaying wood.

These were just a selection from the crop on a felled trunk on the edge of the pitch and putt course at Bantock Park.

Daffodils with flower buds which had not yet started to open, lit from behind by the morning sunlight.

Greenfinch high in one tree and then another by the canal near Castlecroft bridge. The bird was singing loudly and continuously.