Category: David

The first snowdrops I’ve seen flowering this winter, out on Christmas Eve in the garden at new Place, Stratford on Avon. A second clump were in the garden of another Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Hall’s Croft, a few days later.

Shoveller pair swimming by on West Park lake. The male much more brightly coloured than the female, as in many bird species.

Yew flowers on a tree by West Park Conservatory in the middle of December. It’s becoming increasingly common for spring growth to appear before the end of the previous year.

Tufted duck splashing water from West Park over its back, vigorously shaking itself to get clean.

The first stretch where the Smestow emerges from an underground culvert, in Fowler’s Park. A row of trees runs along one of the brick-lined banks.

Young heron stalking the reed bed directly below the Wildside Centre. Every few seconds it was dipping the tip of its beak into the canan, and seemed to be catching a small fish almost every time so far as I could see from the far bank.