Category: David

A pair of goldcrests overhead, full of the joys of spring in late December. It was only later that I noticed that the camera settings had left some of the pictures as silhouettes.

Capstone Hill, on the sea front at Ilftacombe, illuminated in the evening. The lights reflected by the tide coming in to Wildersmouth beach.

A clump of blackthorn bushes, all stunted because of their exposure to coastal gales. The trunks were all covered in lichen – possibly the same type as in the last post. The purplish colour at the top of the bushes may be the coming year’s growth. The purplish colour beyond the bushes on the right is heather in flower.

The scene was the Morte peninsula at the northern end of Woolacombe bay.

Abundant lichens growing on a sea-facing rock face. Despite the different forms in which it is growing, it amy all be the same type.

Gorse can flower at any time of the year. In winter their yellow is a contrast to the bare or even barren appearance of much of the vegetation.

The source of the next few posts is a brief stay in Devon over Christmas. Birds I didn’t expect to see there, any more than in the west midlands, were emus.

But just a few minutes stroll from Ilfracombe harbour, an enclosure held several of them. They were spending most of their time scanning the ground for food, perhaps worms. An English winter is rather different to the sorts of weather in their antipodean homelands, but they looked like they were doing fine.