Category: Uncategorized

A Richness of Wildlife

The Severn is so rewarding in its richness of wildlife and flora.

I love to spy on the shy herons and goosander, though often they see you first!

Goosanders are not widely known about. The female looks bright white in the sun with a beautiful green head, whereas the male has a very different chestnut-red head, more flattened and “swept back” than the rounded head of his mate.

(You can read a previous post about the birds of the River Severn here)

On this spring afternoon I was also blessed by the surprising sight of bees feeding in the riverside trees….

…and three different species of butterflies: tortoisehell, peacock and comma. The upside-down peacock really does give the impression of a strange owl-like creature with wide eyes!

Mute swans and Canada geese congregate on the banks as well as in the river itself, and both are stunning to watch in flight.

(You can read a previous post about geese on the River Severn and a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver here).

On my return, I nearly failed to photograph some long-tailed tits, but followed the wise naturalists’ advice: stay still and you have a 50% chance they will move towards you. On this occasion they did!

Don’t forget to check the dead tree near the start and finish: cormorants like to perch here picturesquely sometimes, their silhouettes haunting against a Shropshire sky (there weren’t any today!).

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Parking for this walk is in the ‘I Love Plants’ car park. Cross the busy road carefully and walk right for a very short while, then over a well-hidden stile on the left, and down across the field, turning right at the river. The walk soon goes through the outskirts of a farm but then you are out into peaceful fields. If you go with others who also have a car, you can make this a linear walk, leaving one car at Atcham, though note that as of March 2022 a bridge over a ditch has been washed away in the winter flood, and you have to detour away from the river and around a hedge in order to reach the road near Atcham. You can also turn left at the river at the start and walk up towards Monkmoor, also along the river, but I find the section from I Love Plants to Atcham is the more peaceful and rewarding as it takes you further out of town rather than toward residential areas. Walking to the ditch and back is a very satisfying walk of 45mins-1 hour, and is dog-friendly.

Celebrating Celandines!

For years, I didn’t know about celandines. And yet at this time of year, in March, they are everywhere in Shropshire, tiny treasures of sunlight-yellow, joyfully announcing the spring.

The poet William Wordsworth wrote about these beautiful gems:

There is a Flower, the Lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, ’tis out again!

Fittingly, he himself was born in the spring, 7th April 1770.

The photograph is of a patch of celandines on the banks of the River Severn – the sunlight bringing out the beautiful blues, greens and yellows.

Keep your eyes open for them!

The Geese of the Severn Speak

Spring brings such beauty amongst the sadness and suffering of the world.

Mary Oliver’s poem ‘Whistling Swans” responds to nature and considers the differet kind of “prayers” that can be said:

“…prayers fly in all directions…

Even when the swans are flying north and making

such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening

and understanding…

the swans know about as much we do about

the whole business…

So listen to them and watch them, singing as they fly.

Take from it what you can.”

from ‘Whistling Swans’

My encounter was with Canada geese on the Severn, not whistling swans, but I took from it the beauty of the spring morning, the power of the sunlight, the forces of life and goodness in the world.

And maybe the geese know about as much we do about the whole business…

Canada Geese, River Severn, Shropshire, March 2022

The New Life of the Spring

The new life of the spring seems to have the power to inject energy and new life within us all.

This amazing sunrise had to be photographed: the swirling mists over the Severn at Atcham, the amazing light that illuminated the whole world, it seemed, in a burst of colour.

I had been looking for a suitable scene to go with a beautiful poem I had read recently called ‘Bazougey’ (the name of a dog).

Sadly, the dog has passed away, but when spring comes, it brings hope:

“Come with me into the woods where spring is

advancing … See how the violets are opening …

the streams gleaming…What does it make you think of?

His shining curls, his honest eyes, his

beautiful barking.”

from ‘Bazougey’ by Mary Oliver

I hardly need to add anything. But this spring sunrise also brought me some hope.

Wild, Precious and Free

There is a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver about a time when her dog ran off, which ends:

“…who am I to summon his hard and happy body

his four white feet that love to wheel and pedal…

to come back to walk at my side, obedient.”

from ‘The Dog Has Run Off Again’

She recognises the wild, natural freedom that her dog loves – that is more precious than simply getting him to walk to heel!

I was down by the River Severn recently and saw some of my favourite colourful ducks there – goosanders. They are bright and beautiful, especially in the spring sunshine, but extremely shy. And as you can see from the photograph, it wasn’t long before they decided to assert their wild freedom, just like Mary Oliver’s dog!

And I had a similar thought. I do enjoy watching them and photographing them. But who am I to control their “one wild and precious life“?

Goosander taking off on the River Severn, Shropshire, March 2022

My Lapwing Love Affair!

I saw my first lapwing as a boy on a farm belonging to a family friend. It was a long way off, and all I remember is the tuft on its head. I remember thinking how magical it looked – especially to someone brought up in suburban London! It made my heart beat a little faster – the love affair had begun!

Decades later and I find myself in the Midlands, where, thankfully, lapwing are still not that uncommon.

In Shropshire, for example, I’ve discovered that they can fairly regularly be seen at Polemere Nature Reserve. In February, a huge flock were feeding in the field next to the reserve. When they decided to take off, they made a spectacular sight overhead:

This photo gives a closer view ofbirds strutting their stuff around the edge of the lake:

On a visit to Anglesey recently I had a much better view of the amazing, beautiful green breeding plumage of the male…

And this week I was treated to the wonderful spectacle of lapwings acrobatic, crazy flight and song, just over the Shropshire border in Staffordshire, as they chased, and were chased by, corvids, gulls and each other!

Their name lapwing may derive from the Anglo Saxon word for “leap” and “reel”, and as they displayed, I could see why!

Hopefully I’ll be able to write a follow up post once I’ve amassed more photos of this beguilingly beautiful bird!

A Gateway of Golden Daffodils

It’s the daffodil time of year in the UK – that wonderful, brief time, when yellows trumpet at us from every patch of green around. And especially so in Shropshire.

Shakespeare wrote about the daffodils…

“…that come before the swallow dares

And take the winds of March with beauty”

from ‘A Winter’s Tale’

And of course Wordsworth once wandered…

“…lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host of golden daffodils…”

The photograph is of the entrance to Attingham Park, Shropshire, taken from the other side of the road in Atcham, where the daffodils are looking as beautiful as they always do every year.

Truly a gateway of golden daffodils to the spring!

Inspired and Connected

What gets you excited, inspired and feeling connected?

For me, it can be something as simple as a sunrise!

I pass The Wrekin every day on my way to where I work. It can be cloudy, hidden by mist, ominous, and sometimes, as on this day, spectacular.

A reminder we are an integral part of our beautiful world, connnected, whether or not we choose to accept it, and whether we choose to destroy or preserve.

And who would choose not to defend a planet that we can be so connected to, and that can be so awe-inspiring?

Tell Me You Love Me

There is a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver where she focuses on her dog, and his simple intuitive longing to know affection:

“he turns upside down, his four paws in the air…

Tell me you love me, he says.

Tell me again…

Over and over he gets to ask it.

I get to tell.”

from ‘Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night (Percy 3)’

Today we are so aware of the need for love – for refugees, for the dispossessed, for the homeless. We are so aware of the need for the power of love to displace the force of evil and hate.

A few months ago I was walking along the ridge of a Shropshire hill, called Stiperstones. The ridge is punctuated by exposed concentrations of bare rock, and the strange atmosphere these create have led to stories of the connection of evil with the place (the largest mound is called “Devil’s Chair”).

But as I walked with the sun setting in the west, I could only think of being blessed by being in this remote, wild place. I was like Mary Oliver’s dog, and it felt like the world was saying “I love you” back to me. Of course there was no audible voice and my mind was responding to ideas I had been exploring. And yet love is a perennial and powerful voice. Perhaps the most powerful voice in the universe?

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Here

In the silence

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Of Stiperstones

The sun sets

~

And we forget

The day’s pains

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There was a wind

That blew

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On the summit

And swept me through

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A voice that called

Again and again

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“I love you”

I heard it

~

In the silence

“I love you”

~

“I love you” again

And again and again.

~

In the silence of Stiperstones, November 2021