Royce Wood in Autumn

This morning was full of autumn glory - a bright blue sky and lots of nature to find and photo!

Two photos here - one of a glorious spindle tree on the edge of Royce Wood and the second of oak marble gall, a small wasp that parasites oak trees, creating this chambers from which its young emerge.

In addition a flock of redwing flew over the fields to the west of Royce Wood, the first I have seen this autumn, coming in from their summer homes in the north and east of Europe to spend the winter with us.

There were also a number of skylark flying through, also migrating, I presume, although it is sometimes difficult to be sure what are birds moving through and what are our resident birds. These seemed on a very purposeful journey though, so I suspect these are birds on migration from colder climes.

There was also a sparrowhawk over the wood.