West Park lake on the same morning. On the other side of the bridge, two more families of greylag geese are swimming together. The pair with the most goslings had also been the ones whose young hatched first, and were by now visibly growing. I think the other family were also a few days older than the birds in yesterday’s post. Perhaps that’s why these parents seem a little more relaxed that the groups are not quite so lined up in one straight line as they swam.
More lords and ladies growing by the Railway Walk at Castlecroft. The flowers and the surrounding spathes had been eaten, almost certainly by badgers: there was a lot of evidence of badger activity right next to them.
As things were a month ago on West Park lake. One of the greylag goose pairs sheparding their then recently hatched goslings swimming from the direction of one of the islands in the lake to one of the less frequented patches of short grass on the mainland, so the little ones could graze.
The mother goose led the way, then the three goslings all in a line, with the gander as tail end charlie.
When they got to the far side, two of the three goslings were struggling to get up the steep stone wall of the bank.
Lords and ladies, otherwise known as wild arum and by a host of other names. A plant which prefers shady places on the woodland floor, and flowers just as the trees are coming into leaf. The flowers are enclosed in leaflike structures (actually a bract) called spathes.
Daisies flowering in such profusion that one of the lawns in West Park looked like a sea of white from a distance. Resting in its midst a pair of Canada geese, one sitting, the other standing on one leg. Occasionally stretching out for a nibble of daisy or grass.
Nearby, a carrion crow, on the lookout for whatever it could get. Further away, a pair of mistle thrushes were also hunting.
A spruce of some kind with cones at the end of its dangling branches. I don’t know whether the pinkish cones are the flowers, or whether they had been fertilised and were just beginning the ripening of the seeds they held.
