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Frosted bullrush

Frosted bullrush

One of the bullrushes at the margin of Wetland Lake, the frost only holding on on its shady side, even though the sun had not been on it for long that morning.

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Heron fleeing over flooded area

Heron fleeing over flooded area

The land around the river Blythe on the Packhorse Bridge Nature Reserve (Hampton in Arden) is normally marshy. After the recent rains, it has become a series of giant puddles connecting ponds and pools.

I thought I had been walking really quietly. Perhaps I was the first person who had been along the path for some time, because a heron took flight when I was still a long way from it.

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Umbellifer flowering, January

Umbellifer flowering, January

Some kind of umbellifer which was flowering at the start of this month.

It was growing on a grassy verge just outside the village of Berkswell. The flowers are elaborate for an umbellifer, so it may have been a cultivated species, an escapee from one of the nearby gardens.

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Flooded alder carr

Flooded alder carr, Packhorse Bridge LNR

Carr is woodland on damp or marshy ground (and thus prone to flooding) where alders and willows are the dominant trees.

Here the carr is in the Packhorse Bridge Nature Reserve, by the river Blythe at Hampton in Arden.

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Earth star with lid

Earth star with lid

Earth star fungus, probably Geastrum coronatum, with what appears to be a lid or protective cover detaching itself from the sporocarp, the spherical structure containing the spore-creating gleba.

I’ve never seen anything like it before, nor any reference to anything similar in my collection of Field Guilds or online – possibly because I haven’t looked hard enough.

Earth star with lid

Seen again five days later. The “lid” was raised higher, but still not separated from the rest.

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Frozen footprints

Frozen footprints

The path connecting Freshwater Pool (featured yesterday) to the Barley Field in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve passes through a narrow gap between a copse and a hedge.

After rain, the gap becomes muddy, then churned up by the heavy traffic of dog walkers, joggers and other walkers. Freezing solidifies the patterns that have been created.