Flowers and stones

The glorious weather over Easter encouraged more flowers to come into bloom and birds to sing. I heard my first Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) on Sunday morning and heard him again this morning, after his long flight from Sub-saharan Africa. The BTO track some Cuckoos on their migrations to and from the UK and you can read about where they get to at this link https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project . If you hear one whilst you are out, you can submit a sighting record from this link https://www2.habitas.org.uk/records/submit-cuckoo-record and it helps researchers understand why numbers are currently declining.

Here’s a few common flowers I spotted over the last few days.

As if on cue, this delicate Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) has come into flower and is also known as Lady’s-smock or Milk-maids. It seems to have timed it’s opening to perfection for its namesake!
This other common spring flower Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) has just started to come out on the hedge-banks and verges and usually forms little carpets of white.
By ponds and streams the vibrant Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris) has come into flower and its bright yellow petals really seem to reflect the sunlight.
Sometimes we walk down by where 2 streams meet in a valley and I have seem stone columns here before but not on this scale! Someone with a very light touch and patience has created something magical which was a real bonus to find and I was glad I came across it before the blustery cold easterlies of Monday as I fear little may be left now.

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