Category: David

Icy clump of lichen growing on a wall by the Birmingham Canal.

Extreme contortion: swan stretching its neck to reach right under its wing, preening while afloat on the West Park boating lake.

One of the first signs of the approach of spring: wild garlic emerging by the canal at Aldersley Junction. A shade-loving plant, like many other woodland ground species, it gets its growth early in the year, before the trees grow their leaves to monopolise the sunlight.

Heron hunched up in the water at the canal’s edge, just downstream of Aldersley Junction on a bitterly cold January morning.

Snowdrops opening on the bank separating the canal from the athletics stadium at Aldersley Junction.

Scarlet elf cups: fungi which add a dash of bright colour in the depths of winter. The bright red fruiting bodies are sent out early in the new year, growing on dead, sometimes buried, wood.

I first noticed some on a pile of twigs by the Railway Walk at Newbridge six years ago. Since then, they have been back every January, although in smaller numbers.