Picspam - Crossrail, Crow, Fungi, Squirrels, Mandarins, a Chinese Barge and a Pretty Flower

[ffutures]

I haven't made a picspam post in a while, so it's time for another selection.

First, some track being transported into the Crossrail tunnels, and a weird little engine which presumably has some special function

(later) I think that the bigger engine is a normal diesel that brings them to the tunnel, the white engine is an electric shunting engine of some sort to take them into the tunnel.









Next, a big crow that was watching me when I passed a construction site yesterday.







A colony of weirdly coloured bracket fungi I noticed by the canal a couple of weeks ago:









A very friendly squirrel that came begging for nuts in the park last week - the second picture is with an infra-red filter, anything that shows white reflects infra-red:







A pair of Mandarin ducks I saw on the canal last week:











A Chinese restaurant on a barge - there's a coot's nest to the right. This is where I've seen a cormorant a couple of times, but not so far this year.





And a rather pretty but very small flower I saw by the canal today, but can't so far identify. I don't know if it's native to Britain or something escaped from a garden. Anyone know?

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've never eaten there, they're a bit expensive compared to e.g. the Chinese fusion all you can eat vegetarian restaurant in Camden High Street, and usually closed when I go by. It's this place if you want a look at the menu:

http://www.fengshang.co.uk

The duck is preening, of course - but it does look a bit odd. If I didn't make it clear, it's just the two mandarin ducks, I didn't see any others yesterday.