Snowdrops

Today's the day ....................... to drift

A dull sort of day to go for a walk - but it brightened up considerably when we came upon this lovely display of snowdrops along the way.

Apparently, according to a study reported in The Guardian today, plants are flowering a month earlier in the UK - as the climate heats up.  This means that they can be damaged by late frosts but an even bigger risk is 'ecological mismatch', when plants and hibernating or migrating insects, birds and other wildlife that depend on them, are no longer synchronised.  Such mismatches are already being seen, for example, between orchids and bees and great tit chicks and their crucial caterpillar food.  The researchers concluded that if plants in the UK continued to flower earlier, and climatic extremes increased further, then “biological, ecological and agricultural systems will be at an unprecedented risk”.  A scary thought.

My only contribution to this research is that I took a picture much like the above, in the same place two years ago - on 24th January.  So I think we're going in the opposite direction round here ...................!


PS Talking about looking back, I noticed the blip I did on this day eight years ago.  It brought back such a lovely memory of our New Zealand trip that I thought I would share it with you again ........