Signs of spring down at Watermead

It is that time of year again. Down at Watermead the snowdrops are out in force.
A nice surprise was seeing two pair of Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis) on the river near Watermeade Bridge.
The Crack Willows (Salix fragilis) were just showing the first signs of spring returning as well.
Then on the shed at the bottom of the garden I found this chap.
Green shield bug (Palomena prasina) in its winter brown colouration.

Hunting for the perfect snowdrop photo

Here it is. This photo required two weeks of preparation, about 10 miles of wandering and a big slice of good meteorological luck. "Snowdrops in the Snow". The first thing I needed was to find a snowdrop wood, monitor how quickly the flowers were coming on and go back on a day they would all be ready for their photo to be taken. Getting snow as well is asking rather allot! This photo is hard to get simply because settled snow in February is quite rare (despite the last two winters having snowy Februarys) and wild snowdrops are few and far between. Here are a couple more photos just because.

The location of these snowdrops can be seen as the camera icon on this map.

I was quite lucky to be back down in Leicester with these snowdrops during this snowfall despite being up at the in-laws in Nottinghamshire all week. Whilst there I did spot one group of snowdrops that could have potentially been the subjects of these photos but alas the few times it did snow it did not stay around long enough for me to get to them with the camera. I did get some good snowdrops in the sunshine shots however.

Here is a map showing where I found these. Again the camera symbol represents where the photos were taken.

Spring is on its way!

Nature has decided that spring is on its way! This morning I was wandering around the woods near Watermead Bridge and came across a vernal carpet of snowdrops on the verge of flowering.

Originally I was looking in the nearby pond for a Red Crested Pochard that I had heard about but on not finding it continued a little way into the woods just beyond. My attention was initially drawn upwards to a few magpies that chattered noisily in the trees. A falling drip of water drew my attention downwards. The mist was manifesting itself as a fine dew over every surface. Every leaf, twig and shoot was covered in thousands of tiny drops of water.

Down on the forest floor a thousand green shoots were silently heralding the rebirth of life. I got down on my knees and manouvred in really close with the bigascope. It makes a nice change to do some close up work rather than photograph unimpressive ducks on the horizon! I wonder what will happen to these snowdrops if the weather deteriorates this week? I'll probably go and check.

Here is a map of my meander.