May Visit to Castle Bromwich Historic Parkland Hunting for More Plant Species

 

Recently D and I made a return visit to Castle Bromwich Historic Parklands to look for more wild flower species.  It was far too hot though and on top of everything else my bridge camera has started to play up.  The macro settings haven't been right for ages which is a pain when you want to take close ups of flowers but for some reason half way through the visit the shutter button seemed to take ages to take photos and consquently I got a lot of blurred photos! I've checked all the settings but I can't find anything that would cause it.

I have a horrible feeling I may have to start using the Olympus dslr and, if so, I would really miss the zoom capabilities of the bridge camera.  I will see how it goes.

The good news is that I have now reset the camera with factory default settings and the problem seems to have gone away. Either D or I must have set a feature that was causing it. Huge thanks to Pete from The Quacks of Life blog who gave me so much support and help over this.

Castle Bromwich Historic Parkland is a Local Nature Reserve and was part of the Earl of Bradford's estate.  It is now part of the Castle Bromwich Conservation area.

A few years ago restoration work was carried out to improve paths and access to the reserve.  The LNR consists of grasslands, woodland, wetland and ponds.

We found our first new species flowering in the car park - Hogweed.

Hedgerow Cranesbill which we had already seen in Leominster.

Ox-eye Daisies

Pineapple Weed

Hogweed again!

Sycamore - the "keys" are already forming.

A grass to id - if anyone has any idea what species this is I would love to know. My grass id skills are not good even though grasses are in some of my wildflower identification books.

Sessile Oak

Elderflower

Pignut - this also grows in nearby Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens and there I have seen Chimney Sweeper moths on the plants.

Foxgloves

Bracken

We didn't go far into the woodlands this time as by now the heat was beginning to really get to me.  So we walked back past one of the ponds and back over the grasslands and visited the tearoom at Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens for tea and cake - a lovely Raspberry and Pistachio cake.

New species seen for the 2026 Wild Plant Challenge were:

• Hogweed
• Pineapple Weed
• Sycamore
• Sessile Oak (we've seen oaks before but this was the first time we counted it as I was able to get a photo)
• Foxglove
• Pignut

bringing the total now to 83.  We have also recently seen Cat's Ear in the garden and I forgot to count a few species seen in Herefordshire.

We also saw a Painted Lady butterfly on bramble flowers :)

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).