Today was the first day of the Easter holidays and such a beautiful sunny day, so I took the kids to Aston Clinton Ragpits. It's such a wonderful place and one of our favourites.
First thing we always have to do is check for slowworms under all of the metal sheets left out for them to bask underneath. Perhaps it's still a little bit early for them to be out of hibernation as we didn't find any today. We did see a little vole under one sheet, but Little Brother was so surprised to see it that he dropped the sheet. Needless to say it was long gone when we picked the sheet back up!
The primroses looked beautiful in the sunshine and there were lots of white-tailed bumblebees buzzing around them. It definitely felt like spring had arrived this morning.
 |
| White-tailed bumble bee on a primrose |
Some daphne mezereum was flowering in the meadow. It's such a pretty flower and quite rare in the wild.
I love the hazel catkins at this time of year. These are actually the male flowers and the female flowers are tiny little red flowers that you really have to hunt for.
 |
| Hazel catkins |
 |
| A hazel catkin and the tiny red female flower |
Coltsfoot was flowering on the slopes and we saw hoverflies, ladybirds, bumble bees and some little bugs. We thought we might see some butterflies there, but not this morning.
 |
| Coltsfoot |
 |
| Hoverfly |
 |
| 7-spot ladybird |
It felt like the Ragpits were really waking up and spring had most definitely sprung!
No comments:
Post a Comment