Little grebe in summer plumage which spend a few days in the canal below Compton Lock in the middle of the month.
In this series the bird was just gently swimming, not diving repeatedly for fish. When a boat came down through the lock, the bird moved so that it was slightly less visible under the shadow of the far bank and its vegetation.
Return visits starting the day after these pictures were taken have been without any more views of dabchicks.
Pale variety of violets, growing in a patch surrounded by someone’s front lawn.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/albums/72157666223605415
Great crested grebes on Pool Hall fishing lake, perhaps in the process of deciding whether onot to start testing the water about pairing up.
The birds were swimming in parallel, turning to go back and forth more or less in coordination. But they were widely separated, with one about a third of the way across the water, and the other a third of the way from the far shore.
Osprey (probably) flying high overhead yesterday, following the course of the Severn as it headed by Bridgnorth.
The sticky reddish brown cover of horse chestnut leaf buds, growing on the ends of twigs, would be hard to confuse with anything else.
For some time I’ve been on the look out for scarlet elf cup fungi in places I’ve seen them before. They grow on dead wood, with the fruiting bodies appearing in winter – usually December or January.
This year I didn’t spot any until the middle of March. There seem to be fewer of them that in previous years, but the cups seem to be growing larger than usual to compensate.