Now the weather is getting warmer, a more varied set of fungi are producing fruiting bodies. These brittlestem mushrooms were in the hedgerow by the canal footpath at Compton. There’s multiple species of brittlestems that these could be, and I didn’t look closely enough to make any more detailed identification.
When marsh marigold is finally floweriing, spring is here at last, whatever the weather. These, on the Compton Park pond, weren’t quite there yet a week before the end of March, but they will be by now.
Mistle thrush at the top of one of the tallest trees in West Park, singing very loudly, I’m not sure whether it was one of the pair which can often be seen hunting for food in the lawns around the bandstand. The tree it was on was towards the far side of the park. But when it did stop singing and flew off, it did head off in that general direction.
When hellebores flower, the weight of the flowers tend to bed the stems, so the flowers nod or droop, pointing towards the ground.
The more vivid purple hellebores in these pictures were in a front garden. The only views I could get looking over the garden wall showed the undersides of the petals.
The others were growing near the top of a roadside grassy bank on Compton hill. As I came along the pavement, I was below the plants, and so got at least a partial view of the “front” of the flower.
The female mallard cross hasn’t been around for quite as long as the drake. In contrast to him, she has a pale plumage, and whenever I’ve noticed her, she’s been on her own.
Cherry blossom up above. The tree with the white flowers was spreading its branches across the wall from in the grounds of West Park Hospital. The one with pink flowers was in the park itself.