Wolves Wild

A house sparrow nibbling at pussy willow catkins, or perhaps at insects which were on the catkins. The pictures were taken in Topsham, on the Exe estuary, at this time of year but several years ago.

Some winter aconites in a front garden. The bright yellow of the flowers is reminiscent of others which will appear later in the year: marsh marigolds or common meadow buttercups. They’re all members of the same family.

I think I saw my first goosanders on west midlands waters sometime back in the nineties. There started to be a few on the Severn. But I only saw them by walking from Bridgnorth on footpaths by the river until I was a long way out of town and into quiet countryside.

Since then, numbers have risen, and so have chances of seeing them in built-up areas. They are, for example, a regular feature on the Shrewsbury loop section of the Severn in winter. On two successive years, we’ve spotted birds mating within a stone’s throw of English Bridge over the Christmas holiday period.

These birds were swimming near the Bylet in Bridgnorth. One year in the noughties, a pair of goosanders nested and raised chicks on the Bylet. I’ve no idea whether they did the same the year these pictures were taken. They date from February 2020. Covid was on the way; lockdown would be declared in a few weeks, so bus trips to Bridgnorth were off the agenda.

Late winter through to spring is the time of year when trees and bushes which use the wind to spread pollen from catkins do their flowering: before too many leaves come out, I guess. On some species, the catkins can be so dense, they look a bit like heavy rain from a distance.

Once upon a time, little grebes used to regularly overwinter on the canal. A stroll along the footpath from, say, Aldersley to Wightwick could clock up substantial numbers. On favoured sections of water, there would be a fresh dabchick every twenty or thirty yards. Each would be regularly swimming up and down its territory, frequently diving and often surfacing with a small fish in its beak, which then had to be adjusted to the correct position for being swallowed whole.

And then it stopped. The last dabchick I saw along this section of the canal was back in 2019. They have still been present elsewhere locally: on the canl further out into the Staffordshire countryside, or Perton pool. In Baggeridge Country Park there’s breeding pairs in the warmer months. It’s also possible that the birds have returned to the urban section of the canal recently – I haven’t checked in the last couple of years.

These pictures are of a bird on the canal very near to Aldersley Junction some dozen years ago. Normally, the birds headed off from their winter refuges early in the year, to try to find prime spring territories before the breeding season started. This one had hung around a little longer, and had already adopted breeding plumage before it set off.

Hips which have remained on a dog rose bush since they ripened in the autumn, rejected by birds. They may be shrivelled and shrunken now, but they didn’t start out that way. I don’t know why they were ignored: perhaps being in an area where lots of people put out food for the birds.