Jackson's Marsh and Coppice

A morning of Marsh Marigolds, bluebells and birdsong.
Our day started with a walk along the boardwalk around Jackson's Marsh, a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve,  we were greeted by the call of a chiffchaff that teased us for a few minutes before hopping onto a different branch high up in the alders before flying off. the Marsh was full of birdsong, we spotted chiffchaff, nuthatch, goldcrest, coal tit, great tit, blue tit, robin, wren, dunnock, blackbird, jackdaws and buzzard.
Jackson's Marsh

We then went on to Jackson's Coppice, the bluebells are flowering another week and the woodland floor will be covered in bluebells.

 

wood anemone

wood anemone

 

wood anemone

Wood Sorrel 

photography by Angela Smith

The delights of a spring stroll up the lane

I do enjoy my dog walks up the lane, especially when I have time to enjoy it!
This afternoon the sun shone for me, the birds were singing , there were plenty of hoverflies and bumblebees about along with a few butterflies , today it was small tortoiseshells and peacock,  and if you stood still you could occasionally hear the rustling of vegetation as small mammals moved about, today we caught a glimpse of a young rabbit just a couple of metres away, earlier on this week we watched a couple of mice scurrying along the hedge branches.
Some of these wildlife gems I managed to photograph, while other times I just enjoyed the moment!
here's my picture for today
Starling

Great Diving Beetle in puddle

Photography by Angela Smith

you could almost believe it was spring!

A beautiful warm and sunny dog walk, with just a light breeze, which meant I had a good chance of photographing my first butterfly of the year, so I took my camera and yes right on cue - this small tortoiseshell butterfly turned up at just the right moment!

the birds were in full song too, such as this wren - belting it out!!!

such a big noise from such a tiny bird -

and this chaffinch too!

My favourite kind of dog walks!

bark patterns at Georges Hayes

wild daffodils

Today we chose to visit Georges Hayes, a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve, with ancient woodland and wild daffodils which were just coming into flower, I expect the best is yet to come, but it was still spectacular accompanied with a hint of the heady scent of wild garlic providing a suggestion of what is yet to come!

wild daffodils, wood anemone and celandine 

what is it about puddles?

When I was a child  puddles would entertain me for ooh .... minutes! I would splash through them, ride my bike through them with legs up high out of the way!, throw stones and soil into them and poor unsuspecting worms and beetles would unfortunately get tossed in occasionally too just so I could see if they would make it out again!
So why is it that they still hold some fascination some 40 plus years on - I still love splashing or slowly wading through puddles watching the small waves and ripple form, providing I have wellies on! and on other days I will stand near to one watching the reflections not wanting to disturb them if it is really still. Today there was a breeze, but the sun was shining and at the top of our lane is a magnificent oak tree and as I approached it the reflections in the puddle across the lane stopped me again, this time I had my camera with me. The reflections kept changing as the breeze picked up and calmed down and as the sun kept getting hidden behind passing clouds and reappearing again, I could have stayed there all afternoon clicking away - as it is I found it very hard to delete any of the photos. I kept 18 which are all currently on my flickr page here are just a small selection, not necessarily the best as they are all different!

silhouettes, shapes and shadows

today's dog walk produced a feast of wonderful images

Robin's pincushion

Isn't it a great name!!!! Robin's pincushion is actually a gall caused by the tiny larvae of a gall wasp - found on wild roses - this is in the hedgerow on our lane

photography by Angela Smith