Last week I went out in the morning to find a little ice on the pond for the first time this winter. The season is moving on, although we have had an unusually mild November. Because the pond is so small it is not hard to keep removing leaves as they appear. A few are all right, but too many are best avoided.
I have mentioned the small log-pile before. There is no space for anything ambitious. But look what is decorating it now!
I have found fungi very hard to identify, but I hope I track this one down. Later searches suggest it is the Many-zoned polypore, Coriolus versicolor. Apparently it is very common but it is decorative.
Another aspect of winter in my town garden is that the bird visitors have changed slightly. The other day I saw the first blackbird I have noticed since April. There are no goldfinches or starlings just now. The chittering fledglings, squabbling over the feeders and emptying them in a day or two, departed in early June. But a robin is now a frequent caller. Every day I scatter a few fat-sprinkles for the ground-feeders and two or three magpies soon appear. Perhaps they deter small birds. A woodpigeon is also regular again, after a summer off. Coal tits are often seen on the feeders; they are very attractive. My own favourite is a dunnock. They are so modest I suppose one may have been pottering about unnoticed for months; but now it is often seen, neat and unassuming as it forages beneath the shrubs.
The bright colour in the garden just now is the holly berries. They still catch the sun, even though much of the garden is now shaded all day.
