Many of the flowers at this time of year are blue. Here’s a selection.
The bluebells and the grape hyacinths are from Key Hill Cemetery – a small burial ground in a former quarry on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter, the final resting place of many of the well-off of Victorian Birmingham, now a shady spot visible from the tram line.
Evergreen alkanets are common in the hedgerows by local canals.
Red dead nettle growing by the wall in front of Lavington’s Hole, the most impressive cave in the base of the sandstone cliff at Low Town.
Two of the carrion crows on patrol by one of the footpaths in West Park, when one of the birds noticed it had a feather hanging loose. A brief pause was all that was needed to deal with it.
Great crested grebe (possibly a female) on Pool House fishing lake with three recent chicks last weekend.
One chick is swimming behind her. Slightly larger than the others, it probably hatched first. The other two, which also have the striped, “tapir-patterned” plumage, are on her back.
The other adult, presumed to be the male, was staying in one position on the water a little further away, watching that this group were safe.
The Paddocks in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve are covered in flowering butterburs in the early spring. This plant, and the many more between it and the hedge-line, were going over and beginning to set seed.
Song thrush searching for worms or insects to eat among the short grass of the churchyard at Worfield.
Closeup of chickweed growing in a front garden. Its profusion reminded me of a miniature jungle.
Swan with its feet deep in mud beside the River Sow as it crosses Doxey Marshes outside Stafford.
Reed growing in a ditch on Doxey Marshes, with a flower-head which is black or near-black.
Magpie on a branch by the Railway Walk, turning its head to keep a careful eye on me. The sunlight shining through the trees lit up an iridescent rainbow in the tip of its tail feathers.
Red algae covering the surface of the slow-moving water in one of the ditches on Doxey Marshes, forming continuous cover except where the occasional taller plant sends leaves through.
The showy plumage of a male pheasant. This one had found some delicacy to eat in the little wood behind the bus stop in Wyken.
