Category: David

Camellia, pink and white flowers open in late February, plus a visiting honey bee.

Some bucks from the herd of fallow deer at Wollaton Park, Nottingham, taking their ease on the golf course where they probably get less human (and canine) disturbance than in the public section of the park from which these pictures were taken.

This was an all-male group – the females don’t have antlers. There were two forms of coat, dappled and “black”. From the distance where I was standing, it looked like two different species of deer.

Pussy willow catkins just opening, these on a tree at the back of Compton Lock. A leaf bud is also developing at the end of the twig.

View across the lake at Wollaton Park to a heronry in a weeping willow.

There were at least ten birds in the tree. Look out for a couple of male cormorants in breeding plumage by the shore as well (lower right of the image at times).

Late February, but the day felt more like the end of spring. Pink cherry blossom in one of the front gardens on Albert Road, standing out against the blue of the sky.

Lesser tortoiseshell butterfly on a lawn on Albert Road, flitting from daisy to daisy., spotted last weekend. That was about a month before the normal time of first appearance. But earlier sightings have been recorded, with individuals roused from hibernation on warm days in January or even December.