Wolves Wild

The numbers of plants putting out their flowers is now accelerating. Here the sculptural flowers dangling from a ribes bush.

A mid-march frost was melting, although the sun had been up less than an hour. But there were still some frost crystals clinging to these clumps of moss growing on the top of a wall.

By the middle of march, the water of the Severn was returning to more normal levels after the floods at the end of the previous month. Men were clearing up some of the flotsam which had been left behind on one of the mudbanks by the Bylet, and a collection of fallen trees had collected by the usual arch of the old bridge, with a beer barrel nestling in the branches.

As the weather warms, more and more insects show themselves. A ladybird suns itself on a leaf.

Magnolia flowers opening from the furry buds on a sunny morning, perhaps a little prematurely when further overnight frosts were still to come.

The lone heron which is sitting out the breeding season away from any heronry, spending a lot of time on the island of the upper pool at Perton. Whenever I visit, it seems to be standing hunched up, with its back pointing in whichever direction the cold wind is coming from.