Snowdrops

5 February 2014

West Yorkshire

A heron flies over the wood, as grey as the rather dismal morning.

Snowdrop, Galanthus, and the species is most likely to be nivalis, a native of most of Europe, from Spain to Russia and Sicily.

Winter Aconite, Eranthis hymenalis, is a member of the buttercup family found in woods and rocky places in France, Italy, Bulgaria and the Balkans.

As it starts to get dark there's an anxious 'pink! - pink!' pinking and agressive 'chuk! - chuk!' chucking from a male blackbird in the front garden rowan.

It's not predators, such as a neighbour's cat, that are causing all this commotion; I can hear a rival blackbird up the street.