David

As nature gets more eventful with the setting in of spring, the time lag between pictures being taken and being posted here tends to go up every year.

The peak time for marsh marigold flowering was the middle of April, which was when these shots were taken. They are from the edges of the ponds in Bantock Park, Old Nursery Wood and Compton Park.

Two peacock butterflies on the path by the canal at Dimmingsdale. In the middle of a sunny morning, warming themselves in the sun before they took wing.

Ribwort plantain, the flowers on one plant as they began to open. Pictres taken the beginning and end of the same week.

It seems that for weeks, I’ve been checking the usual ponds for frogspawn when I was passing, without result.

Then over the Easter weekend, it seemed like there were sounds of frog mating calls all over the place. Loud croaking by ponds, and by the canal out Castlecroft way, but no actual sightings.

On Easter Monday, lots of spawn on Willow Pond. I think frogs’, not from newts which are also recorded as breeding there.

The bluebells were at there height in the week after Easter. Most of these were in the woods around Worfield. But a couple of the pictures are from the Railway Walk between Compton and Finchfield; these might include the odd garden escape Spanish bluebell.

The first comma butterfly that stayed still long enough for me to get its picture this year. It was resting on the ground, spreading its wings to warm up in the sun.