Wolves Wild

Dog violets. Not actually growing in a garden. Spotted growing up through a crack in a pavement a short way from home, seen on my one permitted excursion for exercise – a short walk keeping well more than two yards from the few other people about.

Female house sparrow having a hearty meal on a fat ball bird feeder. Pictures of her mate patronising the same source were posted here a couple of days ago.

Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to describe sitting down catching the early spring sun with a camera to hand as a safari, even in these strange times.

As normal life shuts down until the emergency is brought under control, life in the natural world goes on as normal – indeed less distturbed by human activity.

Two tortoiseshell butterflies very busy feeding on dandelion flowers. Only a yard or so apart, but showing no signs of being aware of each other’s proximity

More from the garden in the spring sun on the first day of lockdown. The bird feeders are still as busy as they have been all winter, Here one or more of the long-tailed tits waiting checking it’s safe to have some fat ball, and then having a long nibble.

First day of lockdown. Pleasant early spring sun. First comma butterfly I’ve seen this year, with the aim of attracting mates. It seemed successful in that quest, spiralling off high and out of sight every few minutes. With what may even have been a fresh one each time.

Robin at Pendeford Mill, disputing the exact limits of territorieal boundaries with another nearby bird.

Daffodils on the lower slopes of a steep bank in the Donington and Albrighton local nature reserve.

The Severn’s level had receded just slightly from a flooding high, leaving a layer of mud on the bank. A wagtail was hunting there for invertebrates to eat.

Along the edge of the Paddock, between the footpath and the Smestow, what must have been hundreds of scarlet elf cups growing on the dead wood under the trees. This is just a sampling of the more visible of the fungi.

PINNED POST. New ordinary posts still appearing sometimes beloe the pinned ones

e Government is still not doing enough to ensure we are all doing enough to cut down person to person contact to stop new infections. We are rapidly heading for an Italian level of crisis, with a health service which is a lot more poorly resourced than the northern Italian zones which have had the worst problems.

I was admitted to A & E yesterday with an unrelated long established condition. I saw the pressures those doctors and nurses treating those of us still being wheeled in with broken legs, suspected heart attacks, etc. I’ve had lots of time in hospitals in the last fifteen years. I always leave with a lump in my throat at what I have seen of the work of all the hospital staff in delivering what we need as patients despite shortages of staff and equipment and funding. What I saw with my own eyes yesterday left me feeling that, but a hundred times more.

As for the doctors and nurses treating the infected patients, that is (I hope obviously) all going on in a separated area, with a different medical team. It was impossible to avoid hearing occasional sounds from that area. I saw a trolley laden with a large pile of hospital kitchen rolls (if you’ve never experienced them, the usual fillings are limited to ham or cheese or scrambled egg with cress) being taken into the infection treatment area, so the medics could eat by grabbing a bite to eat in pauses while they were working.

So I don’t claim to actually know what’s going on. But I suspect it wouldn’t be too far out (for those of us old enough to remember the TV series) to think of the mobile hospital in MASH. But this time there is little or no pause between each wave of incoming wounded. And where they are is the front line.

We need the country in full lockdown now. While we wait for the government to recognise this, we must try to bring social pressure on anyone we know who is giving self-indulgent answers to the question: “Is your journey really necessary?”

But now for wildlife to help keep us sane. As spring seems finally to be getting going, butterflies are starting to appear in increasing numbers.

Birds and small mammals are already getting bolder and easier to see. There long-tailed tits which normally patronise the battery of bird feeders my wife has in our garden. One or two of them are now regularly coming much nearer the house – indeed are regularly flying in and out of a “sun lounge” through the open doorway and a missing window pane. As they do so, they have been pausing to perch on the lawn mower handle. They seem unworried that I am only a yard away, separated only by a pane of glass which would have left me clearly visible.

Earlier, we took a little stroll in the sunshine, taking care to keep well away from the few other pedestrians about. In the bottom of the hedge on the corner of Paget Road and Clark road we saw the scurrying of a small mammal. It was only a quick glimpse, but clear enough to tell for sure that it was not a rat but some type of vole.

Sorry, but I didn’t get any pictures.

Pair of swans on West Park’s boating lake island, both removing some of their feathers to add to a nest they are building on an open patch of the shore.

Mass of Danish scurvy grass with flowers, some already going over, some chickweed mixed in too. Tiny plants which tolerate a high level of salt in the soil. In recent decades has spread from being a rare seaside plant to one growing withing splashing distance of many main roads, on any verges getting the benefits of winter gritters thrown up by passing traffic.