Spring trees

It's not just flowers, butterflies and birds, the trees are waking up now as well. Birch always seems to be first off the mark:

But Hawthorn is catching up fast:

Hornbeam is a bit slower, but is now coming out, with the characteristic pink around its new leaves:

Hazel seems to be in different stages, for example the stools that were coppiced a year ago are just opening their buds:

while the more mature specimens are coming into leaf:

Sweet Chestnut is much slower that the others, but is starting to come out now:

But having talked about the trees, I really should mention the Wood Anemones again, which are building up to their peak now:

There should be some interesting developments in the patch of woodland next to ours soon. There's been some fairly major coppicing operations going on there for a few years now, so there's a big area with 0-3 years regrowth in it now. It looks quite drastic as it's a much larger area than we cut each year, but this is what the ecosystem here is used to, and depends on, so I'm expecting it will look great in the coming years:

Finally, the wild boar have once again decided that our 'pond' is a great mud bath:

Though they don't seem to be looking after the dam which is needed to keep it there:

It's mean to be wet today, as it's a Bank Holiday, but we do need the rain...

Mike