David

Squirrel on a tree right by a busy footpath along the Avon at Stratford, standing crouched in the same position on a tree trunk despite people passing. As we got closer it looked like it might be nibbling on a snack. It looked very squat. Was that its posture, or perhaps was it heavily pregnant?

One small corner of Holy Trinity churchyard in Stratford on Avon has patches of wildflowers which flower very early in the year .

In January, there’s winter aconites adding bright yellow. Come March, it’s the turn of violets and lesser celandines, intermixed and showing complementary colours of yellow and purple.

A song thrush searching for food in the short grass under trees in Bantock Park.

At the start of the month, catkins on a pussy willow growing by the lake in West park were just beginning to develop.

Magpies gathering in twos or in small groups high in trees, visible while the branches are still bare of leaves. They may be pairing up rather that surveying their territories.

A tree fallen across the Smestow Brook at Newbridge. Growing from the trunk, directly over the stream, a second generation of fungi. They are velvet shanks.