Don't you just love spring!

A bank of Wood Anemones along Singledge Lane.

 Wood Anemones

Lesser Celandine 

Lesser Celandine is mixed in with the Wood Anemones, although mainly in smaller numbers.

Our youngest, Simon is coming down with two of our grandsons this week end. He was hoping to see Bluebells but unfortunately it's a couple of weeks too early. However, along the edge of the Captains Wood I did find one plant in bloom. I think it must be an "escaped" garden variety.

The floor of the wood is carpeted in Wood Anemones. 

Although they are not in bloom, the green of Bluebells is now well advanced.

Captains Wood.

I found one patch of Primroses along the path in Captain's wood. 

The most interesting observation though was of a Nuthatch calling. I've looked for them here before but only one did hear one distantly and for a couple of seconds leaving me in doubt. This time it was clear enough although out of view. I tried"squeaking" and got in the usual Blue and Great Tits, a Robin and a Wren. I changed noises and did a couple of "pishes". This had an instant result and the nuthatch flew over me landed, realised I wasn't particularly interesting and flew of again.

Captains Wood

It's obvious when you think about it. The early flower come up in profusion before the leaves on the trees obscure the light. 

At East Langdon a couple of Swallow were on the wires near the pond. This has become a tradition meeting area for early arrivals.

I suspect that this is a female as the tail streamers are shorter than first one on the wires.

They did seem intent on getting with the main functions of spring.

The male is the one with the longer streamers and is trying to fulfil the predictions of the Selfish Gene.

Afterwards a quick brush up and feather rearrangement was necessary.

They seem to have decided on a suitable distance apart, but hopefully they will end up with a couple of broods of youngsters before the end of the summer.

Flowers and buzzy things.

The last two days have been exceptionally warm and sunny and with the mild, albeit wet winter Spring is getting well under way.

Lesser Celendine (Ranunculus ficaria) at Captain's Wood

I had an enjoyable walk around Captain's Wood, near Whitfield, and although it was very quiet there were patches of colour produced by a few flowering plants,  Lesser Celendine being the most striking. (as I am a lousy botanist please correct any misidentification).

According to the literature the individual flower have between 9 and 12 petals. It has always surprised me that the flower of one species can be so variable. 

Wood Anemone (Anemone memorosa)

As I have said, I'm not a botanist, and I'm not good at flower anatomy, but I was surprised to read that this flower has 6 or 7 Sepals. They look like petals to me, but evidently not.

Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides)

The Wood Spurge is the earliest flowering of our wild Euphorbias, and is distinguished by flowers growing from the leaf umbels at the top of the stem

To early for the Blue-bells but they seem to be making lots of greenery in preparation for the spring blooms.

Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

There were a lot of patches of Primroses in flower.This hardy plant will produce flowers from the beginning of the year through to May.

There were also Primroses out along the Lees at St Margaret's and several species of insect were attracted to the plants. I'm not sure what species this fly is?

Another prominent insect was this "bee". It was very mobile and did quite a bit of hovering, but I don't think it is a hoverfly.

The hairy legs and time of flying point me towards The Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes), but I'm not at all sure.