Properly wild today: a walk around the National Trust’s land at Hawkwood. Concentrating on flowers, as a leaping, shaking, racing dog doesn’t do a lot for other kinds of quiet wildlife spotting.

But first an aside: I hadn’t really thought before about the difference our resident parakeet population makes to the sound of the woods. Of course there are the usual woodland birds singing away and going about their daily business in the trees and bushes all around us, but the parakeets bring the sounds of an over stocked pet shop. It is quite disconcerting. And this chap was also adding his voice:

So, what did we find? Well, firstly, the general foliage has grown incredibly in the past week or so. Brambles, nettles, grass,  all well above head height now. Everything is so lush and green it feels as if nature is indulging herself.

The flowers, on the other hand, tend to be relatively small. The path was covered with a confetti of tiny white holly and hawthorn flowers. The colours are also relatively muted as this time of the year: white, pink, pale blue and – the obvious exception – bright yellow.

I’ve noticed how often I get home to find that when I thought I was taking a picture of a flower,I was also capturing an insect. See the rosa above, and this:

Although sometimes the insects are the intended stars – and none of them ever seem to stay still long enough for a really sharp shot :

So maybe my challenge for a later Day is to have the patience to  try for one really good insect shot.

I might also have to try fish: today there were  a fair number darting around in the very clear, shallow water of the stream, but the closest I got to a photo was this (just about visible, top right hand corner):

Incidentally, although today’s walk was definitely in the woods, it was a 20 minute walk from my front door – so I’m still counting it as ‘in the suburbs’!