Spotted this nest on the dog walk this morning. Loxley Common in Sheffield.

I’ve tried googling ‘nests that encase branches’ and variations on that then, unsuccessfully.

I’d love to know who lives there!

I’m pretty sure that isn’t a bird’s nest of any sort. More likely a burr or maybe a fungus growth of some sort. Difficult to tell in the image, but might be a wasps nest perhaps?

Swampy’s new home?

Hard to tell from pic but @tlr sounds about right.

If it is made of sticks then could be a squirrel drey but they are more often in forks in the tree and not just plonked on a straight branch.

I did have to go full zoom on the phone! But thank you @tlr and @dashed.

🤣 @dickbarton

Baby robin

Probably “witches broom” caused by infection by Phytoplasma.

Fairly common on Birch trees, basically the plant hormones are mucked up or manipulated by the pathogen causing a loss of apical dominance by a particular shoot leading to a mass of very fine twigs.

Right! Every day’s a school day. Cheers!

A religious serial killer? 😉

Giant Hornets.

Run away!

A bit like one of those moles where you always get a thick black hair growing out of it…or even a cluster of hairs.

A bit like one of those moles where you always get a thick black hair growing out of it