This morning I was lulled into a false sense of spring by
the weather of yesterday when it felt like we had turned away from the biting northerlies
of recent weeks. It was grey and murky but I thought – ‘that will burn off soon’
and headed out without a proper coat on – idiot boy.
The Post Office beckoned and so it was an uphill walk for
the first mile wondering if I would get the feeling back in my lightly covered
arms and hands at some stage. There was
a great display of Dandelions and Dead Nettles crammed in the tiniest of gaps
between pavement and walls and I stopped to take a picture marvelling at the perseverance
of nature in the most trying of conditions.
I hoped that they council would leave well alone but those hopes were
dashed just a few hundred yards later where the mighty men in orange were
removing any trace of greenery or flower and putting it in black refuse sacks.
I suspect it will go to landfill like that. Why de-greening our streets is a
priority when the removal of litter, dog mess and piles of dumped household
waste on our streets isn’t, is beyond me.
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Shining Cranesbill
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| Why? |
Soon I was alone in the woods of Ranscombe and in fact I did not see
anyone up there on the main path for forty minutes. It was very chilly and the trees were quiet
with just the odd drumming Great Spot and calling Tit and Treecreeper.
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| Gean |
I did discover a strange plant pushing through the leaf litter by a path side with pointed spikes beginning to unfurl. I am unsure what it is yet but Lily of the Valley has been suggested. I certainly never saw it here last year so I wil have to go back and check up on it again!
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possibly Lily of the Valley
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I had been hoping for a butterfly session with bees and
flies thrown in for good measure but I only saw a few Calliphora, one Eristalis pertinax, a female Anthophora plumpies and one Bombus
terrestris all morning and a solitary Yellow Wagtail flying over was my
ornithological highlight and a new species for me here.
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| Anthophora plumpies |
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| Eristalis pertinax |
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Green Woodpecker poo - look at those ants! You can still see the face on one of them!
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The Elephant Tree
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A young Grey Squirrel
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And an unknown primate...
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Stock Doves were to be heard though and sad Mistle Thrushes
sang from the tree tops. I searched the Bracken areas for frozen Adders, not
that I have seen one here but it always looks good and got close to some
Violets that seem to tick the boxes for Dog rather than Sweet (which I also
saw).
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Stock Doves on an old Sweet Chestnut
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Mistle Thrush
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Dog Violets
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| Dog Violets |
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Spur paler than flower and notched
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There were some great patches of luminous Primroses and
little dots of white Strawberry flowers and I think that both Barren and Wild
were involved along with Wood Spurge, Ground Ivy and the first spikes of Bugle.
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| Primroses |
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Primroses and Strawberry
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| Primroses |
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Wood Spurge
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Strawberry - a bigger flower - petals closer together - Wild?
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Strawberry - tiny flowers - petals more separate - Barren?
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| Bugle |
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| Bugle |
Lords and Ladies were at last producing their arum flowers
and Yellow Archangel was visible but not quite open yet, unlike the garden
variety I saw at large on Monday while Enid helped id Bulbous Buttercup for me.
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| Bulbous Buttercup |
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Bulbous Buttercup with its reflexed sepals
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| Yellow Archangel |
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Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint if you like
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I cut down to The Valley which had been fully ploughed and
it will be interesting to see how different the plant community is to last
year. It is still largely barren and the lack of any rain will not have helped
but I did manage to find a couple of Field Pansies pushing through.
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Way Faring Tree
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| Beech |
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Salad Burnet
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Field Pansy
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A male Sparrowhawk hurtled through just inches off the
ground in a successful attempt to catch a Linnet from an previously invisible
flock of 18 birds and a couple of Med Gulls called above me.
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And yes Annie, I did look for SNFs...
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I cut through to
the back of Merrals Shaw and then followed the CTRL back towards my start point
in the hope of finding the Early Purple Orchids from last year but there was
only one spike in the little clearing but at least it was in flower. Lady's Smock lined the path in the palest shade of pastel lilac contrasting with the acid green of the Wood Spurges.
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Lady's Smock or Cuckooflower if you like
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| Early Purple Orchid |
I crossed the green bridge a little further up and was
surprised to find a large spread out patch of EPOs safely on the other side of
the security fence for the railway but unlike the deep purple of the first
specimen these were in a variety of colours ranging from almost white through
pale pink to cerise and then purple. I had not seen such variety in this
species before. I counted about 40 spikes
but there may have been more over the edge of the embankment.
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| Early Purple Orchids |
It had not got any warmer and I was uncomfortably cold so I
headed for home to brew and some lunch to be greeted by a wonderful Mistle Thrush collecting food on the grass outside the front door.
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| Mistle Thrush |
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