Baby Starling

Every year starlings nest in our eaves. If we go into the loft we can hear them cheeping -feed me, feed me , feed me! This baby starling has been in our garden for a few days now using the flower pots and plants as cover, venturing out when its parents come to feed it. So vulnerable at this stage. It's so small and still has the yellow gape mouth.

Bracket Fungi

Walking through Keil's Den spotted a very good example of a bracket fungus. The individual caps were around 8-10inches. I find fungi difficult to identify and certainly wouldn't eat any that I found unless it had been identified as edible by an expert, however, I think this is Dryad's Saddle, so called because it looks like a seat for a dryad or wood-nymph.
Keil's Den is at its best at the moment, covered in bluebells and with the recent rain the vegetation is now lush and green.

Dryad's Saddle - Polyporus squamosus

Pasque Flower

Pulsatilla vulgaris rubra

Pulsatilla is known as the Pasque flower because it blooms around Eastertime. This one was obtained from a garden centre but it is one of our most beautiful native species and does grow in the wild but is now vey rare indeed because of the loss of its habitat. It has been used medicinally as a herb, although it is toxic and should only be used by qualified herbalists. It is also widely used in homeopathy.

Black-headed Gulls, Birnie Loch

Black-headed Gull, Birnie Loch

Birnie Loch is a nature reserve in North East Fife. It was created from an old quarry workings.

Black-headed gulls, now in Summer plumage with chocolate brown head.

Goldfinches and Niger Seed

I had heard that niger seeds attracted goldfinches and I bought some seed and a specially designed feeder. At first although goldfinches occasionally visited the garden, they seemed to be ignoring te niger seed. However, in the last couple of days have seen them on the feeder several times.

Sweet Violets

Sweet Violets

There is a short path which runs along the top of the banking by the side of the road leading up to the golf course and at the moment it is carpeted in white sweet violets. There are also patches og snowdrops which are coming to an end, daffodils and chinodoxa.

Breadcrumb Sponge

Breadcrumb Sponge - Halichondria panicea

At low tide the breadcrumb sponge can be found on the beach at Lundin Links and Lower Largo forming a thin layer on some of the rocks under overhangs. It looks nothing like a bathroom sponge. It is covered in crater-like structures called oscula. It looks as if it would be very slimy but feels quite firm and dry to the touch.