Spotted from one of my favourite wildlife-watching spots – the terrace of the Dirty Duck in Stratford on Avon with a half empty glass in front of me. This female blackbird was on the top of the next-dorr wall, intently looking under the patrons’ feet for any scraps of food.
“Red” spring leaves from a maple and a copper beech. Actually the colour, where the leaves are not reflecting the bright light, reminds me more of up-market chocolate.
Blackbird with partial leucism: a condition where there is loss of pigmentation, resulting in white, patchy or pale colouration. This bird has white feathers around the eye. From a distance it looked rather like it had very large eyes. A clearer view shows the yellow ring around the eye.
Flag iris flowering by the canal towpath very near to Compton Lock recently: views of the plant and of individual flowers.
Pair of young magpies on the stonework at the edge of West Park’s boating lake just after they had taken a dip in the water, leaving one with very dishevelled feathers.
These birds can be recognised as young by their relatively short tails, or by the way they don’t yet seem to have learned to be wary enough of humans.
Sculling across the surface of the water with their powerful legs, some water boatmen.