Mountain pansies at Thorswood

My first ever visit to this pretty Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve and I'm smitten!
Thorswood  has iron age barrows and remains of mining activity, so the reserve is dotted with mounds and hollows,

 it also has amazing views even on an overcast day like today

and at this time of year there are mountain pansies

and other spring flowers including cowslips,

wood anemone,

wood sorrel,

 violet,

and primroses

I will have to return again in the summer to see the orchids

We also watched a pair of raven on their nest

and caught a glimpse of a hare - next time maybe we will see more than a glimpse

Bluebells and more!

I really wish the sun had shone more than it did today, but at least we didn't get all the rain that had been forecast - So we took the opportunity to take a walk through the bluebells at Aqualate.
To see them in such numbers is such a treat.



and of course there were other spring flowers out too.

herb robert

yellow archangel

wild garlic

wood sorrel

All a welcome sight except may be these.

rhododendron

It was also noticeable how bare the trees still look, even though we are now well into May and looking up into the trees it was also strange to see large flocks of tits still flying around, surely they should be nesting now!
From the path we could also get glimpses of the Mere and with binoculars you could see numerous swifts, swallows and martins flying low over the surface of the water. So we then headed to the hide to see what we else we could see.

swallows, martins and swifts over the mere

male reed bunting

female reed bunting

marsh tit

moorhen

great crested grebe

tufted ducks

greater spotted woodpecker