David

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.

This quietly beautiful woodland flower is yet another sign that spring really is finally coming.