Early High Elms

Conservation Field, High Elms, with cowslips, 21 April 2015.

High Elms Country Park looks bare at this time of year because so much has been mown or grazed.  This has mixed results, but it does allow a lot of early flowers to flourish where they might otherwise become overgrown.  This is what they call the Conservation Field, taken with my iPhone, full of cowslips.  This composition isn't great, being pretty much bare in the middle ground, but I wanted to get a cowslip in focus.

Cuckoo Wood with bluebells.  High Elms, 21 April 2015.

Here's a similar shot of a beautiful bluebell wood, also part of High Elms.  The iPhone is limited as a camera, but very good for taking photos that you can then email to someone straight away.  But I also had my proper camera with me.

Common Dog-violet, Viola riviniana.  Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 21 April 2015.

Violets are flourishing just now; in fact some of them are already over or hard to find.  The chalk meadow at Burnt Gorse has Hairy Violets, a chalk-loving species, but when I went on 21st April I could only see hundreds of these Common Dog-violets.  Their distinguishing features are: a light coloured, notched spur behind the petals; pointed sepals; leaf-stalks not noticeably hairy; and large sepal appendages, one of which you can just see here sticking up where the flower stalk joins the flower.  There are four common wild violets, some of which can be hard to tell apart unless you check all these details.

Bee-fly, Bombylius major.  Burnt Gorse, High Elms, 21 April 2015.

This Bee-fly was just interested in whether it had nectar.  It is a fly that looks and acts like a bee, though bees do not have that long sharp-looking snout.  They are a pleasant sight, buzzing about in Spring and hovering by flowers.  This shot shows that the fast-moving wings may be holding it up, but it is also positioning itself and perhaps being steadied by its legs; so it's not a fully committed hoverer like a hoverfly.

Some common flowers are about in the woods.

Garlic Mustard, Alliaria petiolata.  High Elms Country Park, 21 April 2015.

The young leaves of Garlic Mustard are usable as a salad plant.   It's also called Jack-by-the-Hedge, which accurately tells you where else you can find it.

Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum.  High Elms Country Park, 21 April 2015.

Herb Robert grows all over this area, mostly in woods and hedgerows.  At the back left is a rosette of Wood Avens leaves. They are also very common and will flower later.  In fact, there is some in the previous photo too.

Toothwort, Lathraea squamaria.  High Elms Country Park, 21 April 2015.

Toothwort only grows near trees, usually Hazels, because it is a complete parasite.  It has no chlorophyll of its own.  It is a very early flowerer and its season is almost over.  This specimen only has a few open flowers left, and most of those I saw were completely finished.