David

By the downstream end of the Bylet at Bridgnorth, a mallard with nine ducklings which looked like they may have hatched earlier that morning. The ducklings were enthusiastically exploring, with a couple of them swimming some distance from the protective gaze of the mother.

A single cowslip growing by the edge of the water of the canal near Compton.

Goslings in the sidestream of the Severn along the Bylet at Bridgnorth. There’s two broods here: one of four goslings, the other of two.

The fluffy goslings are likely to have hatched that day, or the day before.

Looking like a miniature conifer wood, a cluster of horsetails, non-flowering plants triving as weeds.

Their brief flowering season already over, these hellebores had seeds which were already ripening. These were in the Dutch Garden at Bantock Park.

What remained in mid-April of a larger tufted duck flock which had overwintered on West Park lake.  Over the winter, numbers of males and females had been approximately equal. Here the drakes heavily outnumbered the ducks.