Wolves Wild

High on one of the trees at the back of Compton Lock, a heron stands watchful.

Bluebells seemed to take a long time this year for the flowers emerging to being fully open. These pictures were taken on the first of the month, by the canal and (the only shot with a fully-open flower) in the woodland at the Pendeford Mill Reserve.

Shelduck on a narrow island in the large lake at Doxey Marshed, reflected in the calmer water in the lee of the island.

Scurvy grass seen in close-up. The flowers are tiny – the plants are perhaps an inch high. Look for them right by the side of main roads, no more than an inch or two from the tarmac. The plants are halophiles, growing in environments high in salt.

They have spread in Britiain in the last fifty or sixty years, living in the zone splashed by the run-off from the winter gritting of roads. Their spead has also been aided by the draughts from passing traffic.

Misty late March morning. The resident swans all on the same small part of West Park’s boating lake, facing the bandstand. At least one pair have made their nest on this shore of the island. Perhaps that’s why some of them seem to spend all their time swimming round in the threat posture, wings raised to make themselves look larger.

Pictures taken the same time as the footage here.

Aubretia matting a section of the wall at Castle Walk, Bridgnorth. Many bees were attracted to the flowers on a warm spring morning – one sneaked into a picture.