Spring flowers and sad sights

The dreadful flooding over much of the Somerset Levels and Moors in the early part of the year meant that trips to many of our favourite local reserves, such as Greylake, were curtailed, either because they were under water or the access routes to them were closed. We can only be thankful that in most of Combe we escaped the worst and the first spring wild flowers were a welcome sight.
In SSW the snowdrops and daffodils made an early appearance, then the cowslips followed by the yellow rattle which has really established itself in the un-mown areas now.

Yellow rattle

This has been a really good orchid year, perhaps the wet winter had a part to play and the local  pyramidal orchids were lovely.

Pyramidal Orchid

I was saddened though  to see that someone had been stealing these delicate plants and the land owner, quite rightly put up signs noting their concern.

Another sad sight during June was this young fox which had, unluckily for it, chosen the narrowest part of the cross bars to try and jump over a gate and got itself stuck. It must have been a frightening death, struggling to get a foothold to push through but finally strangling itself. A fluke accident if ever there was. (Though I am sure some people will not be sorry to see one fewer fox in the locality, it was not a nice way to go).