David

This thistle has leaves which almost seem to be clinging to the ground.

Every spring these violets flower at a sheltered spot by the Staffs & Worcs canal.

The same little bank normally has violets and lesser celandines flowering at the same time, with the purple and yellow of the two sets of blooms making a colourful contrast.

The violets below were growing by a roadside. They look much more blue in colour.

Two more mosses showing fruiting bodies. They were growing just inches from each other on the top of the same wall.

This subtly coloured peacock butterfly could be approached quite closely because it was warming up for the day by spreading its wings in the mid-morning sun.

One of the entrances to a badger’s set. This one has at least half a dozen entrances: some setts can have many more.

A fox’s den is also excavated, but has a narrower hole.

CORRECTION – while this post was waiting to be scheduled, someone saw the inhabitants of the hole at dusk. They were a fox, a vixen and at least five very young cubs – perhaps four weeks old as their fur was starting to change to reddish brown.

The leaves are now beginning to burst from these sticky buds.

These catkins are now fully out.

Yesterday’s hedge sparrow wasn’t a sparrow. And now a dead nettle which isn’t actually a nettle. It gets its name because the plants look very similar to nettles, and they are dead, i.e. harmless, lacking any sting.

A dunnock, a.k.a. hedge sparrow.They look like slightly smaller versions of house sparrows, but are not closely related.

The upper surface of this fungus is folded so looks with a little imagination like a copy of a human ear moulded in brownish jelly.

It used to be known as the Jew’s ear fungus. It commonly grows from the trunk or branches of an elder tree. According to tradition this was also the tree from which Judas Iscariot hung himself.

The specimen below is about as close as it gets to actually resembling an ear.