This time of year is great for searching for lost treasures:the dead annual vegetation being at its lowest , and new growth not yet started, one can see through areas that were too dense and spot all kinds of things especially animal bones, but unfortunately not all are of natural happenings, such as these three skulls of sika stags, dumped by poachers. One is old and moss covered while two others are later additions, and had the antlers removed.
I also found this roe head, small, but with an extra tine on its right antler ,although both had been eaten down by rodents, something that occurs naturally and one reason as to why antlers do not hang around for long.Deer as well as foxes, voles, mice,squirrels and rats all eat antlers as they are so rich in nutrients.
This one had been more likely to have been eaten by a big cat (see big cat diary ).
Looking at birch polypore (piptoporus betulinus), I came across the parasitic fungi on the underside.(name to be added ). The bracket fungus attaches itself to weakened birches but only damages the tree when it is dying, then takes over, breaking it down.
Here is the close up of the parasitic fungus on the underside of the bracket of a nearby infected specimen.
I found this primrose in bloom in the snow on the Longleat estate in Wiltshire.
Nearby was an acorn that had impaled itself on the barb of a wire fence.
The cold weather creates lots of interesting formations of frost particles, here the forms are on the roof of my car.
It is interesting to see that each form of crystal is different, from simple angular structures to more complex leaf like ones, all mirroring the other forms to be found in nature, governed by the laws of physics.