Wolves Wild

Mosses and lichens growing on the trunk of a tree in Valley Park.

Like a squirrel’s dray, this looks like an untidy pile of twigs high in the branches. It appears to be about the same size as well, but can be distinguished by being roughly spherical.

Another sign of the approaching spring: robins are increasingly visible singing from prominent lookouts, and so determined that they stay in place unless approached very closely.

Just for a change, something from last summer. A swarm of bees rest on a stone wall.

Despite the continuing wintry weather, signs of spring are slowly coming. More and more trees are coming into bud, like this oak.

The recent snowfall saw more animal prints left in the snow early in the morning. Above the footprint of a fox, and below a set of its prints.

And here are tracks left by a rabbit which crossed a quiet suburban street.

For scale, here are the tracks next to the mark left by the tyre of a parking car.

Here are the greenish (male) catkins of a standard hazel bush.

And here the pinkish catkins of the variant type.

And here the much less conspicuous female parts.

The fruits on this old man’s beard plant are still remaining on the plant from last autumn.

This lichen was setting out fruiting bodies at the end of January.

Nearby, a series of sloe bushes are almost covered in lichen.

Squirrel homes are easiest to spot in winter, when the trees are bare. They look like big and untidy birds nests.

Different mosses (above and below). The forms both of the leaves and the spore pods are very different.

The remains of last autumn’s fruits.