Wolves Wild

Flowers on a box elder tree in the Castle Grounds Park, Bridgnorth. The tree is a native to north America, and also goes under several other names including the Manitoba maple.

Another bird beneficiary from the bird feeders in Castle Grounds Park, Bridgnorth. One the ground below, rather than the feeders themselves, a dunnock hunts among the wood chip mulch for any grains which have fallen down.

Monkey puzzle, or araucaria, a mature tree near the castle remains in the park at Bridgnorth. Near the top of the tree, one branch had a pair of flowers at the end.

The Castle Grounds Park in Bridgnorth isn’t very big, but among its attractions there’s a couple of sets of bird feeder stations. Here a blue tit was spending some time eating away at the variety of seeds which had been embedded in fat, all enclosed in a half coconut.

Wild garlic is another woodland ground storey plant which gets its annual growth done early in spring before the trees’ leaf canopy above cuts out all the sunlight. I like them just before the flowers open, when they are composed of different shades of green. At that stage they have not yet developed the strong smell of garlic, which to me can be overpowering on warm spring days.

Quite a few geese gather on the river at Bridgnorth, dominating the gangs of waterfowl and gulls which assemble whenever anyone throws bread to the birds. Most of the geese have white plumage of feral domesticated birds, or partially white of feral / greylag crosses. Two such birds were vigorously preening in the side stream which runs between the Bylet and the left bank of the Severn.