FIRST SPRING FLOWERS.

I know it is only February but everything seems early this year, perhaps due to the very warm 2018 summer or even global warming.  The magnificent displays of Snowdrops, which are classified as garden escapes in the Dorset flora, are especially widespread. A few years ago they only occured in gardens and in the the churchyard in low numbers, but this year they are frequent on verges both in the village and away from it.  The first truly wild flower to bloom is the Butterbur.

The purple flower spikes appear in moist places before the very large leaves . Down the Weymouth Road by the sewage works has a good display, with the added bonus of a Kingfisher darting downstream when I took the photo above. They are also available on the road to Rew where the old mill leat occasionally overflows and keeps the ground moist. The  leaves will appear once the flowers have died down, and were used in past days to wrap butter, hence the name.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Selborne, is now on his way back to the New Forest. The latest bulletin reads:-



Selborne moves further west - 14 Feb 2019

Selborne didn’t hang around in Ghana. Having spent a week there he headed west again, 687km (426 miles) west into Guinea, overflying Ivory Coast on the way. Presumably he will stay here a little longer and prepare for his desert crossing. In 2016 he crossed the Sahara on 25 March and on 24 March in 2017.