witches broom

witches broom is a common sight locally, and is the result of a fascinating and ill understood process whereby bacteria harness and corrupt the growth pattern of plant cells, see link. This occurs at a deep metabolic level and may help us to understand the way genes control growth and development... of such simple things are advances made.

chiffchaff

Small but very noisy, chiffchaffs are easy to detect on bare branches where they make their incessant and tuneless call, chiff chaff chiff chaff .

we're back

The swallows are back. I saw two last Friday (11/4). Usually these early birds fly on, but this year they are already investigating the nest they built last year in our neighbour's porch, and flying around the house (hence photo). I think this is the earliest that I have recorded them returning since 2005. There are some beautiful views now just before the leaves open and the canopy closes in.

on Weir Quay

It was a lovely sunny morning, and the cherry tree in front of Cleave farm was in full blossom. Usually at this time of year we get gales as the trees come into bloom just in time to be blown away.

on Weir Quay

We paid a visit to Weir Quay this morning. There were surprisingly few wading birds about apart from this grey heron, and a couple of shelducks waddling about. The black flight feathers on the grey heron are very noticeable. The male shelduck (the one on the left) has a little red knob at the top of his beak, otherwise the male and female are very similar.

yellow does it

This spectacular display of daffodils, forsythia and celandines is on the road (A388) into Launceston; it gets better and better each year. And a grey wagtail!