Wolves Wild

Willow catkins coming out on a tree by the canal near Newbridge. Another welcome sign that spring should soon be replacing this winter which seems to have been going on for ever.

More pictures from around the Exe estuary. Footprints left in damp sand on the dunes of Dawlish Warren, I think by a weasel.

Little egrets used to be occasional visitors to England. Now there are significant numbers in established populations in the south west.

These pictures were taken on a recent visit to the Exe estuary. The egret was on the RSPB reserve at Bowling Green, Topsham.

This guineafowl is among the stock at Northycote Farm. It was a little muddy, but much less so than the pig pictured at the same time.

A male little grebe in breeding plumage swimming on the canal by Aldersely Junction. The birds overwinter here, and are usually gone before their plumage changes.

Hat tip:
Chris @ Smestow Valley Birding, for prompting the walk where I saw this bird as well as the dabchick which featured in the previous post.

A male little grebe fishing in the canal under the Tettenhall Road bridge.

Vigorously shaking its head to stun or kill the small fish he has just brought up.

Puts it back into the water.

Begins to eat the fish.

Back into the water again.

All eaten up, and on the point of diving again after fresh prey.

The pond at Northycote Farm with a thin cover of ice last week.

Uneven surface to the ice near the edge of the pond. Perhaps from gasses given off by rotting vegetation in the pond, the surface of the bubbles frozen before they burst.

Heavy rain must have splashed mud onto these snowdrops, growing in the woods behind Northycote Farm Country Park.

The recent wet weather had left it very muddy under foot at Northycote Farm Country Park last week. Most of the farm animals seemed happy with the conditions, especially the pigs.

Turkeytail is one of the commonest of the bracket fungi. It grows on dead wood, such as this East Park tree stump.

The green colour here is algae growing on the fungus – the upper surface of turkeytail fungi have bands of different colours, which sometimes include green.