The beauty of roadside verges

It's wonderfully sunny today, perfect for photographing poppies, so for today's 30 Days Wild Challenge I thought I'd wander along to take photos of my favourite roadside verge. It's a relatively short stretch of verge beside London Road on one side and Lower London Road on the other.

It really is magnificent this year (after a very disappointing year last year).
 

I normally only ever see this verge from the bus and today's trip allowed me to fully appreciate it in more detail than is possible even from a stationary bus.

The red poppies are the dominant species here

but there are also corncockles (the pink flowers)

and a few cornflowers(the blue ones)

 and some ox eye daisies

plus spear thistles, ragwort, cleavers and probably many other species I've overlooked. There are also several trees in the verge including hawthorns

There were a few bees flying around, including this buff bottomed bumble bee

Meanwhile two swallows and two swifts flew overhead and a house sparrow landed on the fence next to me as I was taking photos, but moved too quickly for me to get a photo of it!

Roadside verges are becoming more and more important as refuges for our wildflowers as flower rich meadows are poisoned with pesticide or built on.

Plantlife, the charity that looks after and campaigns for the UKs wildflowers is currently running a Road Verge campaign asking members of the public to call on public bodies to look after roadside verges better to allow our wildflowers to flourish. You can find out more and add your name here.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to webpages where you can find out more.