David

This heron was on a tree beside the Shropshire Union canal, apparently surveying the field beyond. It was disturbed by a boat coming from the other direction before I could get any closer.

The hairs on the stem can cause an allergic reaction in some individuals.

Unidentified caterpillar is rather lost crossing a marble paving-stone.

Hard to photograph because even slight puffs of breeze set the branches trembling.

Mistletoe in flower, so I finally got why it has a poetic description as the “Golden Bough”

Last year’s berries were still there, and didn’t seem to have shrivelled.

As far as I know, the nearest mistletoe to Wolverhampton grows near to the centre of Coventry. These plants were a bit further away than that, in the garden of Anne Hathaway’s cottage at Shottery.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7024370929

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7024370411

Looking like a large buttercup, which they are indeed, and always found in damp places.

These catkins do indeed look much paler than those of the commoner black poplar.

Taken a few days earlier than the previous picture, but just outside Stratford upon Avon. The season was much more advanced by travelling somewhat to the south.

The buds just beginning to swell on one of the blackthorn bushes on the edge of Barley Field in the Smestow Valley LNR towards the end of March.

Catkins at the end of a twig on a silver birch.