Two pairs of tufted ducks were swimming together on West Park lake. Every time I tried to take a picture, one or other of the pairs dived, leaving a ring-shaped wave where they had been. In several shots, the nearest I managed to the complete group was three birds, and the ripple where the fourth had submerged.
I gave up, and went for pictures of the individual birds instead. This time there were no problems of them disappearing underwater.
Lesser celandines are now well into their flowering season. But even on the warmer sunnier days, there’s only been a few signs of bees visiting them.
Shovellers – these are all drakes – snoozing in the lee of one of the islands on West Park lake.
Candle snuff fungus grows all year round on dead wood: tree stumps and fallen branches. It’s normally easiest to spot in early winter. That’s partly because undergrowth is at its minimum. But it also shows clearest then because it is whitened, I guess with spores.
Clearance work had removed some undergrowth, giving a better view of this stump with the fungus in its blackened form.
Are these indistinct wet footprints left by an otter? Something had come out of the water of a pool recently created as part of a new Stratford on Avon local nature reserve, crossed the riverside footpath, and gone straight into the river.
Half an hour later, when we walked back along the path, no sign was left of the footprints.
A cormorant flying high up and fast, following the river Avon downstream as it left Stratford by Lucy’s Mill.