I was struck by the lovely patterns on this snail's shell
this snail seems to have something wrong with its shell
left-over raindrops on lime (linden) leaves
these yellow poppies seem to have come into bloom really quickly
I was trying to map Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed along 'my' stretch of the river so that Edinburgh Council can then come along and control these two invasive species. It's a difficult job, much though I can read a map, I find the world looks different from along the river and I sometimes find it difficult to work out exactly where I am on the map so I can plot the invasive plants.
I still managed to enjoy all the birds though. I got excellent views of dippers (more so than usual as I went right down to the river close to where I know a pair are nesting (co-incidentally next to a stand of Japanese Knotweed) and one of the birds was right there!). I also had close views of two tree-creepers and saw a number of youngsters of various species being fed by their parents.
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Rain is good. We could sure use some here! We have a few stands of Giant Hogweed in the town south of here. Awful stuff! And Japanese knotweed keeps sneaking under the fence from my neighbours garden. Not nice.
ReplyDeleteI love the way everything greens up when it rains. We've had plenty of rain in the last month so we are really lucky.
ReplyDeleteLovely. I admire the determination of the snail.
ReplyDeleteI was hearing on the telly the other day that the long winter weather with it's warm March break has played havoc with the bees but there are winners too, Snails are doing well this year (and their shelless cousins, especially down the Water of Leith it seems.
ReplyDeleteWhat great photos! I especially like the ones with rain drops and I feel I can almost smell the Linden tree. Good luck with the mapping. It is a challenge.
ReplyDeleteThis looks luscious, I'm quite missing the rain already, after carrying several big cans of water down to the veg garden and back!
ReplyDeleteThere's a tree creeper that goes up one of the chestnut trees across the road from us. I only seem to see it when I'm on the phone looking out of the window, but never when I'm talking to someone who would be interested to know I'd seen a tree creeper!
I never knew that Limes and Lindens were the same species ... so thank you for pointing that out! I'm envious of your Dippers!
ReplyDeleteShade poppies we call those yellow ones! Have them by the bazillions! Very prolific here.
ReplyDeleteJapanese Knotweed is quite a problem here on our rivers - along the shore especially where the high, fast winter waters scour away other vegetation. A number of efforts to control it. Good luck mapping it ... I think that is a necessary first step. Here they try to work from the head of the stream on down because it breaks off and floats down and re-colonizes where you already cleared it otherwise!
You've captured, nicely, the freshness the rain brings with it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a mission to be rid of those invasive plants. Love the snails and the pretty poppies, it would be nice to see more poppies than the invasive plants. Sounds like a great outing see the dippers and the tree creepers.
ReplyDeleteWow, I need to get down to the Water of Leith, I want to see a dipper!
ReplyDeleteAre those wood poppies? I'm new to them and mine are small white flowers, nowhere near as impressive as those.
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