Unidentified Wildflower

Lots to do today but before I start, this flower is annoying the heck out of me.

I am sure that I used to know it well and I just cannot remember what it is. No, my mind is a complete blank.

I know that I should seek expert help but I am too embarrassed, anyway there are a lot of really clever people that stop by this blog and I am sure that one of you will know what it is.

It was growing way out in the forest at the bottom of a valley, very damp ground and quite open, so lots of sunshine.

Now did anyone see what I did with my marbles? I can’t seem to find them…

Unidentified Wildflower

This one is a tiny wildflower and you have to look quite closely if you want to see it as more than a dot on  the floor but then that is what we are here for…. to look closely.

The leaves are very distinctive and the flower is exquisite. I am confident that despite it’s diminutive size I will have no problem in getting a positive identification on this one. Usually when I find a flower that I don’t know I can at least recognise the family but I am at a bit of a loss here.

Over to you……   🙂

Unidentified Wildflower

This is the flower that I went out to photograph today.  I told you that it was beautiful, didn’t I? At this moment in time I don’t know what it is, although I recognise the family and finding it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

However I do believe in getting other people to do my work for me and I have a lot to do this evening. So if anybody recognises it please do tell me what it is.

Pardon my Ignorance 3

By now you are probably getting the idea that I really don’t know much about wildflowers. Well… maybe. The truth is that I have pretty much specialised in woodland species and the meadows that I find myself in now are full of wonderful surprises.

It is great for me. When I go out I am especially looking for something that I don’t recognise. The more that I can find the happier I am.

I photograph new species and then I identify them and I learn about them. They become a part of my life and my eyes are opened wider than ever. It is what I like 🙂

That last ID came from Mike and he blogs here Mike585 about Wilden Marsh which is only an hour or so north of me. It is a very different habitat from my farmland and forest and I enjoy seeing how his season is developing.

So, you might as well do my work for me. This next flower is definitely not called a Sherbet Dip Flower (I have done a Google search to make sure) I found it in the same location as the last and as always, it wants to be my friend.

Do you know what it is?

I have got to go up to the Badger sett now and give the dog a run. I was too… It was raining too hard to get up there last night 🙂 and I want to see if we got anything.

If I haven’t got around to visiting your blog yet today then don’t worry I will. It is just proving to be a busy morning.

Thanks for looking 🙂

Pardon my ignorance 2

There may be a lot of these posts, I am a very ignorant man. Curious anyway.

Okay we are off to a late start. That is partly down to my exuberance in celebrating the  Fourth of July (which reminds me… Bastille Day?… July 14, good we haven’t missed it.) It is partly down to me running into a few wildflowers yesterday that I wasn’t sure about. You can help.

So I was on my way to the American whiskey shop and I had to cross this field and there were a few wildflowers that I didn’t know. I will ask you an easy one.

What’s that?

How could something this big and beautiful have escaped my attention  for so long?

Don’t close your mind to the idea of a garden escapee. If that was the case I wouldn’t stand a chance, I just don’t know gardens but I don’t think that is the case. There are  no gardens around here.

I promise that we will have a positive identification before the end of the day but I have a lot to do first. I will give you the same pictures that I will use later and if you can help I will be very grateful.

I haven’t forgotten that I owe you a post about Nipplewort but since identifying it we haven’t had a single decent day and I want to photograph it in the sunshine.

Thanks for looking 🙂

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..