Above the sea of yellow created by this year's prolific flowering of the gorse, the small birds are finding places to sing - like....
....this song thrush which could, if it wished, have used a much higher tree to weave its wonderful song but chose to be surrounded by flowers, or....
....this male yellowhammer which, perhaps because he would have been so much less conspicuous in the gorse, chose a branch near the top of a willow tree.
Meanwhile, the bluebells in the woods are reminding us that they come in several colour variations, including pinky-bluebells and....
....whitebells, of which there seem to be many more this year.
Other old friends are reappearing. like cuckoo flower (or lady's smock) with its delicate colour shades, and....
....campion, which will continue to flower all through the summer. It's one of my favourite flowers because I can remember enjoying making sketches of it in art classes at my prep school.
The one thing missing from this feast of early spring life is the insects. In the last few days I've seen a white butterfly and a peacock, and a few large bumblebees. Perhaps this paucity of insects is easily explained by blaming the weather - the midday temperature has been struggling to rise above 10C, and it has been breezy - but I do wonder....
Another wonderful update Jon, thank you. Such beautiful colours. I really like cuckoo flowers - they grow along the edge of the Trent and Mersey canal where I live, it's nice to see them appear each year, marking the move into spring. In the middle of the darkest months, in December and January, when we're walking our down up and down the towpath twice a day, it feels like spring won't arrive and then all of a sudden, it's here, and then all of a sudden, it has gone! Your comment in your previous post about maybe the last first bluebells of spring was very moving. Thank you for writing this excellent and thoughtful blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind comments. They are much appreciated. I'm just so pleased that what I describe strikes a chord. Jon
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