A ten minute nature safari at Ducketts Common

With twelve minutes to wait before the next bus from Turnpike Lane, there's nothing for it but to do a quick nature safari in the wonderfully wild space just behind the fence.

Above our heads in the towering plane trees, we can hear the unmistakable chatter of the resident starlings.

Down at our feet, spread like gold coins across the grass were the dandelions, back at last after their too long winter absence.

Look closer and you may spot a tiny solitary bee enjoying a feast of nectar from this gorgeous star shaped dandelion. 

Not far away there are lesser celandines not quite out shining the dandelions.

(I recommend the Parkland walk by the old Crouch End Station for a breathtaking display of celandines right now)

Also a valuable source of food for these early insects, the lovely red dead-nettle nestles in the grass adding a touch of purple-pink. 

Maybe not the gardeners favourite but every plant has a right place and the blue flowers of green alkanet add to the palette. Once upon a time this plant was used to make dye hence the green not blue name. Like a lot of plants, we've forgotten how we used to use them and they aren't seen as valuable to us, but to insects they are a banquet. 

Called back to the bus shelter, I spotted the hawthorn and blackthorn sitting snugly together behind the tube building. Blackthorn blossoms before it produces leaves, hawthorn puts out its leaves first. That's the easiest way of telling the difference at this time of year.

It was actually here on Ducketts Common that I actually saw my very first butterfly of the year, an acid yellow Brimstone male and, then the paler Brimstone female not far behind. 

There's nothing I like better than a slightly overgrown patch on the edge of grasslands. It's where Spring is happening, right under our noses.