Heavy showers and squalls all day.
The river Finn is clearly in flood. I'd estimate that the water level is currently 3m higher than normal. And judging by the state of the path it was recently higher.
Not much movement in the Horse Chestnut buds.
And Hazel catkins haven't opened yet. No female flowers seen.
This solitary Holly berry escaped the attentions of the domestic decorators over the holidays.
Honeysuckle shoots have been pushing since December.
This moss belongs to the Polytrichum family, but is very much smaller, with the sporing shoots only 15mm tall.
The fern is a very young Hard Fern.
And this is Polytrichum formosum. The sporing shoots of this one can reach 20 cm tall.
Racomitrium aciculare grows on a large rock.
The coniferous part of the woodland is being harvested. Unfortunately the access road has been built directly on top of the area where I found Ireland's only known colony of Cerodontha sylvatica. So unless the fly can be found elsewhere, we have lost a species that was new to Ireland.
