Category: David

Fishing for their dinner, a trio of goosander females at Bridgnorth. In recent years the birds have started to overwinter on the middle Severn.

Crowd of hundreds of small snails dormant on the stems of the vegetation in a small piece of rough grassland in southern France. They were estivating – sleeping through the summer to avoid the hot, dry season.

Branched Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus cornucopiae) growing near the base of a poplar tree in Halls Croft garden, Stratford on Avon

The small civic park in Cassis near Marseille had a little pool with a resident population of mallard and mallard cross ducks. They were accommodated in an island duckhouse by a fountain. One afternoon, a muscovy duck, not a resident, appeared ensconced on the roof of the duckhouse, taking a shower in the water of the fountain as it looked down on the mallards below. A little later it had disappeared again.

Two female goosanders, possibly a mother and daughter, on a log at the Bylet, Bridgnorth. They stared out on to the river and stood preening. At one point, one bird turned its head to the other and hissed, with the second turning its head to reply. When I passed again a little while later, they were now sitting on the log, preening again.

Japanese umbrella mushroom (Parasola plicatilis, also called pleated inkcap) growing on wood chip mulch by the Severn at Bridgnorth. Very common growing in short grass, small and delicate looking, they shed their spores and disappear within a day.