Photo gallery – Longrun Meadow

Adults and children planting seeds in a field

People planting small trees in bare ground to make a new hedge

School children planting raised bed in amenity area

Orange and black patterend butterfly resting on bramble

Wooden bike ramps in a field with rainbow in the background

People in brightly coloured clothes singing and playing ukuleles

Orange, black and blue butterfly resting on bright yellow flowers

Two deer running across a meadow

Runners' legs going past a yellow flower in long grass

Group of people and dogs posing for a picture

Rings of long and short grass

Large pink flower next to opening buds of yellow flower spike surrounded by long grass

Adults and children paddling canoes on a river

Small bird with dark brown head and orange breast perched on a fence rail

Butterfly with orange underwings feeding on a purple flower

Bird of prey perched in a bare alder tree

Very small bee, around 1cm long, covered in pollen resting on a person's finger

Small bright pink flower among long grass

For more pictures visit the Longrun Meadow Flickr Group – where you can also post your own photos of the meadow – or check out our Instagram feed:

longrunmeadow

Some hedge trees getting a head start on spring.

Some hedge trees getting a head start on spring.

Blackthorn - just a handful of flowers are opening now on bare branches, out of hundreds of metres of hedgerow on the meadow. The rest won't be far behind.

Hawthorn - leaf buds are bursting now. Their flowers with be later.

These animals aren't waiting the few days left for

These animals aren't waiting the few days left for meteorological spring - a couple of boy mining bees were out in the sun today and some frogspawn, already in a ditch.

#Taunton #wildlife

Flooded again. Take care, especially near the riv

Flooded again.

Take care, especially near the river.

Some of flood field will definitely go over wellies...

One, two, three! 🦋🥚 These brown hairstreak

One, two, three! 🦋🥚

These brown hairstreak butterfly eggs are usually found on their own, but this year we've found some doubles and even a triple.

If you want to find them, it's best to get searching before the blackthorn starts to flower. Look on the dark bark of young blackthorn, at the base of a branch. Just keep clear of the thorns.

If you want to see the adult, you'll have to wait until about August and you'll need patience and a large helping of luck. But the effort is completely worth it.

What do you mean "that looks like a big crow"? A

What do you mean "that looks like a big crow"?

A pair of ravens was out yesterday evening. Here's how to avoid mixing them up with their smaller cousins.

1 - beak is dangerous looking.
2 - neck ruffles are fancy.
3 - wedge shaped tail.
4 - it's the size of a buzzard!
5 - the crow looks tiny now, doesn't it?
6 - cousin magpie now seems cute.

But usually, you'll hear them before you see them - kronk!

If you're out on the meadow, you might see that wo

If you're out on the meadow, you might see that work on the #WillowCathedral's annual maintenance is well underway.

Stefan is being closely supervised by a pair of robins, so we're sure he'll do a great job - even if it takes a bit longer than usual because the ground is so muddy!

We've also seen our resident honey bees out and about today. They can be active whenever it's warm enough throughout the year, and will probably be visiting the willow flowers that are just opening on and around the cathedral.

More puddle than meadow at the moment.

More puddle than meadow at the moment.

Here are a few things seen on the meadow today. P

Here are a few things seen on the meadow today.

Pied wagtail on the bridge.
Red dead-nettle - you can always rely on the dead-nettles to keep flowering.
The stonechat - again, but she's fabulous.
Some fungus growing on a dead elm tree stump.

Have you got a favourite meadow sight at the moment? Are you hanging on a favourite to return in spring or summer?

#Taunton #Wildlife

Instead of a 2020 wildlife roundup, here's a 2020

Instead of a 2020 wildlife roundup, here's a 2020 meadow picture search.

Each picture has at least one animal hiding in it, some more tricky than others. To get you started, the first one has an almost invisible rabbit.

Answers in 2021!

Thanks to #StormBella and overnight rain, the mead

Thanks to #StormBella and overnight rain, the meadow is a little under water.

It's not as deep as past December, and the path through barn field just has one large puddle, instead of a lake. Lots of paths are still passable, even without wellies if you're good at jumping.

But the river is still high and fast, so take care.

#Taunton #winter #weather #flooding

Have you seen any extra cute looking pigeons aroun

Have you seen any extra cute looking pigeons around recently? Maybe in the alders above French Weir?

Bird one is a stock dove, Columba oenas. They're not rare, but they're very easy to overlook.

Here's how to tell the difference between a stock dove and our other resident, the woodpigeon, Columba palumbus (picture two):

Dark eyes - separate it from the woodpigeon which has bright yellow irises (feral pigeons have red).

Small size - the woodpigeon is bigger and chunkier (but this is hard to judge when they're up in a tree).

No white patches - the woodpigeon has white on its neck and wings, while the stock dove has none.

Call - the easiest way to recognise them once you've got your ear in. Find their calls on the RSPB website or xeno-canto so you know what you're listening for.

Happy pigeon spotting!

#birds #wildlife #winter

'Tis the season... to spot a stonechat! These sma

'Tis the season... to spot a stonechat!

These small birds are winter visitors to the meadow. They use tree and hedge perches to search for invertebrates in the field margins.

The male is darker coloured and easier to spot, but their fast flights to and from a convenient perch will give them both away if you're looking.

#Taunton #wildlife #winter

Some slow motion little egret fishing. Seen next

Some slow motion little egret fishing.

Seen next to the cycle path bridge to Tesco, with two kingfishers flying past moments before.

#Taunton #Wildlife

We've not had much time for social media recently,

We've not had much time for social media recently, so here are some pictures of meadow inhabitants from the last week.

Some of the plants flowering on the meadow this wi

Some of the plants flowering on the meadow this windy weekend.

Seen something we missed?

Next week Adam will be back in Cathedral Field to

Next week Adam will be back in Cathedral Field to do this year's coppicing.

It might be a bit noisy but the area will be clearly marked, so don't cross any barriers and keep dogs close!

We didn't record a single bee on our #BeeWalk this

We didn't record a single bee on our #BeeWalk this morning (though no result is still a useful result!) but we did find a few clumps of this #fungus.

We don't have a mycologist on the team, but we think it might be fairy fingers, Clavaria fragilis.

Any #mushroom enthusiasts who could confirm or correct?

Hawthorn in a hedge, with flowers and fruit at the

Hawthorn in a hedge, with flowers and fruit at the same time.

We are seeing quite a few plants flowering out of season. Have you seen any unexpected blooms this year?

A lovely morning for some raking! The cutting on

A lovely morning for some raking!

The cutting on this bank isn't managed by us, but this year we are going to try to remove as much of the cuttings as we can on this south facing bank as it has plenty of potential to improve in diversity of plants and for habitat for animals.

Spaced out (and avoiding the very active wasp nest!) we didn't even manage half of it, so we'll probably be back next week.

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