A photo a day Feb 1st to Feb 11th

Its about time I caught up  and showed some evidence of my progress. Its been the coldest February for a long time so plants and bugs have been having a hard time.  Hopefully some of my recent photos not only show the conditions but have a little interest.

Laurel shrubs in the garden are showing very healthy new buds despite the cold.Feb 1st.

Showed this shrub before I think but buds seem to have developed well recently and showing colour now. Feb 2nd.

Several degrees of frost make the snowdrops collapse onto the ground. Feb 3rd.

The whole of the small pond is now frozen over with some seed heads locked into the water. Feb 4th.

A change in the weather , rapid rise in air temperature and the snowdrops fully recover. How do they do that? Fen5th.

Despite the cold spell the white flowering Lonicera is still in full flower.  Feb 6th.

Taken during our Botany Group field trip to small wooded are nearby to practise identification skills for trees without leaf. This one just beginning to flower. Cherry. Feb 7th.

In the same wooded area in a nearby blackthorn hedge we found these Brown Hairstreak Butterfly eggs.  Just visible in fork of branch.Feb 8th.

Back home and finding plenty of Lichen on various trees in the garden. Some trees have a good covering and others very close by none at all. Both trees apparently healthy. I've borrowed a book"Understanding Lichens " by George Baron and a Field Studies Council Identification card covering Lichens and Air Pollution. I need to get some samples and use a hand magnifying lens or a microscope to make progress.  Feb 9th.

At last we had a slight covering of snow but it only lasted 24 hours or so. Feb 10.

Noticed a Thrush flying to the think Ivy at the top of an adjacent wall. Watching it I realised it was managing to reach the fruit of the Ivy plant and remove the berries. The photo shows one of the flower spikes which was covered in berries and now has only three left out of approximately 15 a few weeks ago. Feb 11.