David

Broad-leaved stonecrop is a popular ground-cover succulent, especially in rock gardens. A front garden with beds at waist height by the pavement meant I was able to use the macro setting on a mobile’s camera to get these close-ups, with water left after overnight rain reflecting off the fleshy leaves.

Yet another fungus I noticed but didn’t inspect closely enough to identify properly. It may be one of the twiglet group (more formally the Tubaria genus.

Dog’s mercury, another plant which gets its growing season and its flowering season done early in the year, before it is overshadowed by the leaf canopy above. These were growing in the hedgerow by the canal footpath at Compton, and the flowers were just starting to open.

Now the weather is getting warmer, a more varied set of fungi are producing fruiting bodies. These brittlestem mushrooms were in the hedgerow by the canal footpath at Compton. There’s multiple species of brittlestems that these could be, and I didn’t look closely enough to make any more detailed identification.

When marsh marigold is finally floweriing, spring is here at last, whatever the weather. These, on the Compton Park pond, weren’t quite there yet a week before the end of March, but they will be by now.

Mistle thrush at the top of one of the tallest trees in West Park, singing very loudly, I’m not sure whether it was one of the pair which can often be seen hunting for food in the lawns around the bandstand. The tree it was on was towards the far side of the park. But when it did stop singing and flew off, it did head off in that general direction.