Meadows, woodland, river, sun

I made the most of the amazing, sunny evening by visiting a local wildlife hotspot in Wiltshire where I was keen to capture the early spring flowers.

A favourite meadow species of mine is the cuckoo flower, which likes damp-ish old grassland, but can be found in new habitats too.  I was hoping to get the classic shot of an orange tip butterfly and was lucky enough to capture one just as I approached the only decent clump of flowers.  I waited a long time but the butterfly never returned after that single moment.

Orange-tip on cuckoo flowers

A bee-fly

Blackthorn blossom

The meadows lie next to the River Avon and the reflection in the water showed of the blackthorn blossom beautifully.  Iford Manor was also a great backdrop for other blossom bearing trees.

 Iford Manor, Wiltshire

The meadows abut a small limestone grassland slope, which is beautifully managed through careful grazing.  It supports numerous unimproved grassland specialities, including this green-winged orchid and cowslips

Green-winged orchid

Cowslips

Next to the grassland is a narrow strip of rich woodland, with a bridle path running through it.

Old coppiced oak

It is full of ramsons and bluebells, between the oaks and old hazel stools, along with a number of other ancient woodland indicators, such as yellow archangel.

 

Yellow archangel

 Orange tip on a bluebell

Bluebells

Cowslips along the woodland ride

Greater stitchwort sapping up the sunrays

Bluebells in the evening sun

The sun going down behind the old stone bridge

Fantastic spring

Gotta love it.  Although it was a cool evening I was not disappointed with my wanderings after work this week.  Its been lovely and sunny (to coin a phrase) and hence everything has been brought on suddenly.

The trees are really greening up and the hedgerows are blotched with the white of the blackthorn.

 Blackthorn

In the woodlands the primroses, wood anemone and lesser celandines have been joined by the star attraction - the bluebells - everyone's favourite and rightly so.  We are very lucky to have such a spectacle of amazing blue in our ancient woodlands.

Bluebells and the yellow of lesser celandine in evening light

Wood anemone

The old grasslands, where the plough or the fertiliser has not reeked its havoc, host a myriad of special plants.  On the limestone, where I was visiting, the violets provide the first purple of the year, with the proud cowslips dotted across sward in clumps or singly.

 Cowslip

 Violets

Where the woodland edge meets the unimproved grassland, and the  capricious primrose can mix with the cowslip, the false-oxslip can sometimes be found.  This is different to the true ox-slip which is a species in itself.

False oxslip

Of course the grassland owes its existance to the hungry sheep which keep it short and this grazing in turn encourages the fabulous diversity of flowers.

I'll leave the last words to the singing robin...