Category: David

Buzzard flying over the Shropshire countryside, climbing on a thermal.

Despite appearances, yew trees don’t produce berries. Instead, they grow cones (the trees are conifers) each of which has a single seed. As they ripen, come the autumn, each cone is almost covered by a soft fleshy structure called an aril.

Shown here are twigs of a yew which had recently finished flowering, and the cones were just starting to develop.

Male chaffinch on a branch of an elder bush, singing loudly and showing no signs of nervousness at my approach.

Blackthorn bushes flower before their leaves appear. When the flowers are at their peak, a blackthorn hedge looks like someone has been applying a frosting of icing sugar with a heavy hand.

Two of the herd of cows in a field crossed by a footpath, chewing contentedly as they lay in the spring sunshine.

Cowslips and other wild flowers were growing on the bank of the cutting at Hampton in Arden station.