February in Castlemilk Park, 2021

It is a little bit Spring(ish) in Glasgow at the moment, and in Castlemilk Park, the wildflowers are most definitely indicating spring is in the air!

The snowdrops have been carpeting the woodlands for a while now. The daffodils are getting ready to flower, plus, wild garlic is sprouting, lesser celandine is growing, and, before long, the bluebells will be next to make an appearance.

Left to right: Daffidols, Hazel Catkins, Wild Garlic, Snowdrops, Lesser Celandine

Treecreeper

I've read that just 10 minutes of nature exposure has a positive impact on your wellbeing, and I certainly felt it walking along the river looking for the dippers that dart around. I didn't see anything this time, but if you have a look on Castlemilk Park’s Facebook page below, someone did and their shots are great! It might not have been my lucky day for dippers, but there were plenty of other birds throughout the park singing away. I managed to photograph a treecreeper for the first time, along with a camera-shy goldfinch! He just wouldn’t move away from behind those branches. The rain was off and on, but it didn't distract from a lovely morning.

Male Blackbird in the rain

The view over Glasgow was awesome from the Daffodil walk, even with the grey rainy skies.

Magpie over Glasgow from Castlemilk Park

Left to right: Robin, Blue-tit, Goldfinch

A Blue-tit from below

There were some Fungi firsts for me too. I spotted a perfectly round Collared Earthstar ( I think), Brittle Cinder, Velvet Shanks (Pics 1,2,3) and came across the most interesting fungi on mossy logs, stumps and trunks. I think the second last photo might blue stain fungus or something similar. Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to going back next week to investigate further!

Several of these species I will need to research further to ID. If you have any clues to what any of them could be, please let me know!

Squirrel by its nest

An Activity for a Rainy Day

With my eldest back at nursery, we’ve been out in the morning more; and in all weather! It's so easy to stay in the house when you don't have to go anywhere. It's been more rain than sun lately, and that hasn't been all bad. We've been taking puddle pictures using the phone; taking photos of the reflections we see in them. These turn out to be very abstract, especially with some random flipping and cropping!

The children are great to do this with; being smaller, they have different points of view. I urge you to try it on a wet day.

Jared’s Puddle Picture

It doesn't need to be puddles because park benches and shiny bins/ railings create even more abstract results.

Also this month....

We’ve yet to see any moths or butterflies, but on the way to nursery we saw a 7-spotted ladybird in the leaf litter, woken up from the milder weather.

This reminded me to get our Orange-tip pupae into a larger container, for when they emerge. It would be fabulous if they make it!

A couple of days ago, we were privileged to have clear skies to witness the second ‘full’ moon of 2021. I'll finish up with a photo of the ‘Snow Moon’ rising if you missed it.

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