Would we discover our animal plants: COW parsley, HORSE chestnut, dandeLION and SHEEP sorrel? We did and all were in flower!

We also saw Greater Celandine, Honesty, Bluebells and a couple of foodie flowers BUTTERcup and GARLIC MUSTARD.

The children also found a ladybird, a spider dangling from a branch in the process of making a web, a Cardinal beetle, Green Oak Tortrix larvae dangling before our eyes and some Bonnet fungi.

We walked through a swarm of Hawthorn flies which we tried to appreciate as they are good pollinators. They are also known as St Mark’s flies because they often appear on April 25th!

The trees we identified on our walk were: Oak, Horse and Sweet Chestnut, Mountain Ash, Sycamore, Silver Birch, Holly and Ash.

When we got back to the Pavilion we ticked off what we had seen in our ‘Nature Detectives’ Handbook’ and worked on our ‘Yaffles Book of Leaves’.

Of course, we enjoyed amazing birdsong on our walk. What a wonderful time of year to be out on the Common discovering some of all it has to offer!