Category: David

The pond at the top end of Turner’s Field in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve recently. The water level lowered, and all the willows around and in the pond felled, reduced to logs or wood chips. For comparison, this is what the pond looked like from roughly the same spot back in February 2014.

Presumably related to the work to develop housing on the nearby site, formerly the location of the local authority plant nursery. Apart from the destruction of a fine set of mature trees, the pond has been reported in the past, IIRC, as a location where newts spawn.

Male shovellers swimming on West Park lake. Part of a small flock of presumably wild birds which over-winter on the lake.

Canada goose walks across the frozen boating lake at West Park, closely inspecting the ice it is about to step on.

The infant Penk, emerging from a small wooded area and approaching Perton.

Magpie strutting across the frosty grass on one of the lawns in West Park, on the look out for invertebrates to eat.

One of the yuccas in West Park on a frosty morning. The yuccas seemed to be coping surprisingly well with the deep cold for plants originating in hot and dry regions.