Wet Walking

We continue to be assailed by a miserable north-north-westerly airflow which holds the temperatures below 10C at midday, and also brings sharp wintery showers of hail interspersed with some of the heaviest, though not unwelcome rain we've seen in months - so taking a walk involves donning all the heavy waterproofs of winter, and taking photos is severely restricted. However, on the bright side, when the sun is out the gorse still burns enthusiastically.

I walked out this morning looking for anything new, and almost immediately stumbled across the year's first lesser stitchwort hastening its flowering before it's buried under rampant bracken.

In this weather, the last thing I expected to find was a large caterpillar - albeit a very unhappy caterpillar holding on to a twig of dead gorse. I think, without certainty, that it's the caterpillar of the drinker moth.

One doesn't normally expect to find something of interest in the bottom of a soggy ditch but these are only the second example I've found of a fungus called bog beacon Mitrula paludosa. There were only half a dozen of these tiny fungi....

....this one, the largest, being about 10mm high.

Shortly after I arrived home Mrs MW called me to the window. Tsuro was back on the lawn enjoying a late breakfast of succulent grass. We were mightily relieved to be able to welcome him home.