David

Male house sparrow on one of the high twigs of a laurel bush, looking around very carefully.

I visited Northycote Farm to see whether I could spot any frogspawn in the pond. No sign, perhaps because it was only a couple of days after the persistent cold weather. As a consolation, I grabbed these pictures of the pond in the spring morning sunlight.

Some of the West Park black-headed gulls as their plumage begins to turn to take on the summer form, with the adults developing the black cap on the head which gives the species its name.

Another view of West Park just before dawn, another field overlain with a blanket of low mist.

At the end of last month, the moon looked full for several days. The morning after the pictures featured in the post yesterday, more views of West Park lit by a moon about to set. This time a well-defined patch of shoulder high mist covered one of the fields of the park. A large group of Canada geese were sitting or standing eating away at the frosty grass.

Growing among the moss on the top of a wall, and around the base of the trees along the pavement, tiny plants of common whitlowgrass in flower. Not something I’d ever noticed before, but apparently this winter-flowering species is indeed quite common.