I stroked something extremely soft for 30 Days Wild. It wasn’t a feathered or furry creature, but a gall. This is a fresh oak apple gall that I found at Pitsford Water nature reserve.

Like all galls, they are abnormal growths on plants that have been caused by a parasite of some kind. In this case the culprit was a tiny wasp (Biorhiza pallida), but galls can be created by viruses, fungi, bacteria, insects and mites and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. This species can be seen between May and June.