Wolves Wild

Cowslips, early one morning recently, with a light dusting of frost.

Growing in a garden, not wild.

Dandelion with a small bee in search of pollen…

and another where the seeds are almost ready to be blown away.

Danish scurvy grass is a tiny flower which grows in early spring. It thrives in salty soils which would kill off most plants.

Despite the name, it is a native plant. But up to about fifty years ago, it only grew right by the sea. Then, in the 1960s, salt started to be added to the grit spread to keep the roads clear in winter.

This scurvy grass began to spread; first along motorways, then other main roads. It’s so small that it’s inconspicuous, but the chances are that it can now be found growing by any road which is gritted regularly and also has soil near enough to get splashed by the resulting brine.

Coltsfoot plant early one morning, before the flowers had opened.

Yellowhammer perched on the top of a hawthorn hedge, proclaiming its territory.

Tulips in the garden at Wightwick Manor.

The flowers seemed to have been at their best for the recent open weekend.

The first, solitary, bluebell I’ve spotted this year. It was growing on the grassy bank between Hawthorn Wood and the canal, not far from Dunstall Water Bridge.

Two separate wood pigeons, neither of which seemed at all disturbed when I walked up close enough to get these pictures.

Some of the group of jackdaws which were sharing a tree by the canal at Compton, early one morning.

Frogspawn, already beginning to develop. The weather this spring has not been good for breeding frogs (and others).

All today’s posts are from the lower pool in the Wightwick Manor garden.