Category: David

More signs of spring cropping up in the middle of winter. Oak buds beginning to develop half way through January.

One of the cygnets on West Park lake swimming right towards me. The bird may be mature next year.

Oak-apples are galls, deformations in the tree produced when a wasp lays its egg there. These, on a tree near Berry Brook on Northycote Farm, must have been fairly recent. As they age, they turn a darker, duller brown.

Female blackbird on a fence overlooking the poultry pens at Northycote Farm, possibly on the look out for getting a little of the hensgrain.

Just after I took the pictures in the previous post, the parakeets flew from the island and landed high in one of the conifers closer to the path. This is the one less obscured by the branches.

The ring-necked parakeet pair in West Park. One is feeding on an alder on an island on the lake while the other keeps on watch.

Neither bird has the red patch of feathers at the back of the neck (the “ring” of their name) which marks the male. But they are definitely acting like they are paired.