Showing posts with label Ash flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ash flowers. Show all posts

Monday, 27 March 2017

Blackthorn, bluebells and buzzards...


Another spring is making its presence felt in Comfort's Wood and Monday 27th of March 2017 turned out to be blessed with cloudless blue skies and warm temperatures. Time to dust off the camera and see what can be discovered on this one particular early spring day...

The surviving ash trees are flowering now



The blackthorn is looking great too

The first beeflies of the year are enjoying the wood anemonies



And there are plenty of them this year. It really does look stunning in the woods right now...










They are also attracting other insects to nectar...

This is a tiny hoverfly
The bluebells are about to burst into bloom




The primroses are already in full flower

For a lot of the time I spent walking around the woods today, I could hear the constant calling of buzzards from high above. This won't be of interest to you but I only had the macro lens on this day. The macro is for real close-up work and so there was no way I would be able to get even a half decent photograph of the buzzards who were a good 200 feet above me. Even so, I wanted to record the fact that they were there and so pointed the camera skywards and hoped. This was the result. Not good but at least I have a record of them being there to share...






I couldn't resist trying to snatch a picture of this robin either...




Back on the ground, I spotted this fungi along one of the rides...





There are plenty of celandine in flower too

A comma butterfly sunning itself
Cuckoo-flower

The cuckoo-flower seems sparse this year compared to others, but even so, there is enough to attract one of my favourite springtime butterflies...

An orange-tip butterfly (male)


It also attracted this large white butterfly
Little violets are flowering right now


The hazel is just starting to come into leaf and quite a few insects seem to find it attractive...


I shall be expecting to see the delightful, red leaf-roller weevils any day now. Meantime, and I think this was my favourite find of the day by a country mile; I discovered this bright blue weevil...

A Blue Weevil (Byctiscus betulae)

And that is about all. Not bad for a couple of hours wandering the woods...

Monday, 13 April 2015

Comfort's Wood begins to burst into life....

Now that we are well into April, things are changing fast in the woods. Apart from the odd frosty start to the day, we have been blessed with some lovely weather that has encouraged growth...


A frosty start to the day......

Although the tree canopy is still almost exclusively bare, down at ground level, there is more colour appearing daily...

Bare trees, blue skies and wood anemones...


There are a few species of fungi to be discovered at present...







The ash trees are budding up nicely...

Ash buds...



Ash keys...


Some of the ash is even bursting into flower...





Unknown fungi...


Loads of primroses...



And violets in flower...




Even a few bluebells flowering...




The willow is looking spectacular in places...

Willow flower...


The upturn in temperatures has encouraged even more invertebrates out in recent days...

A bee feeding on cuckoo-flower

I have never before seen so many of these little ladybirds in the woods. They are on so many tree trunks and in good numbers...

Kidney-spot ladybirds...



I have already spotted Comma, Peacock, Brimstone, Small tortoiseshell and Red admiral butterflies...

A Peacock butterfly


And a closer look at the lovely wood anemones that are everywhere in the woods right now...