The teacher bird

Great tits are singing now.  They are easy to recognise because their main call is just a repeated 'teechah teechah teechah'

If you think you have spotted one look for the black stripe down the tummy, and the white cheeks.  

For a more detailed description of the great tit's songs and calls try this video by Maurice Baker.

Will it be this year?

Here is a contribution about orchids in Thornbury from Simon Hardwick. All these photos were taken in Thornbury

Within admittedly a very good stone’s throw, in recent years we’ve had three species of orchid growing in the fields next to Filnore Woods. The soil is good with no fertilizer or weed killer being used. The conditions are right, so It’s quite reasonable to expect them to be there, as their tiny seeds can be carried great distances in the wind. 

The three contenders most likely to make an appearance are:

The Bee Orchid

The Common Spotted Orchid

and the Southern Marsh Orchid

Keep your eyes out from late May until August and you may be lucky enough to see them. If you do, please remember not to pick them, let the flowers seed and we may see many more.

Fine and dandy

If dandelions were rare how delighted we would be to see them.  Although they continue flowering through the year April is their biggest time.

Beautiful in the wild but a bit invasive in the garden, so at home I pluck off each day's flowers to prevent seeding.  My hands turn yellow with the pollen that would otherwise have been enjoyed by bees and tiny beetles.  See one little character bottom left below.

Wild cherry

If it hadn't been for this solitary discarded flower on the grass .. .. ..

.. .. .. I wouldn't have looked up and noticed the glorious blossom of this wild cherry tree (Prunus avium)

Bombylius major

You may have seen big queen bumble bees buzzing round the garden looking for nest sites to start a new colony.  But this character is not a bee!

This is a fly, often called a bee-fly because it is superficially like a bee with its furry body.

It's one of my favourite spring insects (springsects) with its attractively marked wings, its long snout for sucking nectar from flowers and its shamelessly loud whining noise as it hovers.

They are very important pollinators, favouring blue and purple flowers, especially lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis).  But they will also visit others such as celandine and primrose.  They are around in April and May so spot them now.

Ash flowers

We have loads of ash trees in this area.  You can recognise them by the knobbly bits on their bare twigs.

 These are actually the flowers, which as with so many trees, don't have petals.

Like Pussy Willow, the male flowers drop off on to the ground while the female flowers stay on the tree and develop into the seed-bearing ash keys.

Their job is done

Another clue on the floor.  

These are the spent male flowers of the pussy willow or sallow.  They have pollinated the female flowers, which stay on the female trees, but when that's done there is no further use for them.  The fate of the male of the species.

Look up and you may still see some of them on the tree, with a few remnants of golden pollen.