Day 2 of this Nature Challenge found me back home in Bramley. I am really struggling to walk at the moment so I cheated today and jumped into my car and headed off down to one of the ponds in my village.
I thought it was time to see what life I could spot in the pond. Along the way I spotted some lovely wild strawberries in amongst the primroses as well as some yellow archangel. Beside it all the arum was starting to push up their spadix ready to transform themselves into things of beauty.
The pond I visited has had tv’s and other detritus dumped into it but it is still quite beautiful ringed with marsh marigolds and a centre of reedmace. There was a slight oil sheen on the surface but that did not seem to hinder the wildlife in any way.
I soon spotted some tadpoles in amongst the decaying material in the pond however on the right you can see a catkin (the pond was strewn with them) from a pussy willow tree.
In my attempts to get a close shot of a tadpole (they do move fast) I inadvertently snapped a catkin. The complexity and beauty up close of the catkin really surprised me.
Finally I managed to get a half way decent shot of the little fellas. Not the most fearsome creature to track down but they sure are a difficult one to pin down and photograph 🙂
Cheers
George