ONE NEAT LOOKING MALE and two duller female Smews on Anglers Lake. Pochards, Tufted Ducks, Mallard, Great Crested Grebe, and Coot are also about. I like the American name Canvasback for Pochard, it's a useful mnemonic for the drake's appearance. Come to think of it, a Pochard is a little contraption, of French origin, for oil painting outdoors anyway.
Cormorants are standing about on two long islands created opposite one of the hides.
Bluebell and Lesser Celandine leaves are emerging in Stubbs wood in the Park.
Budding plants that resemble yellow green artichokes are emerging on the bank of the stream that flows through Waterton's Grotto, still a quiet wooded area. They appear to be the emerging spadix (hooded flower spike) buds of Skunk Cabbage, Lysichyton americanus, introduced from western North America, a relative of Wild Arum.
The derelict Barnsley Canal contains more water now than I ever remember seeing. A Willow Tit hops amongst the branches of a thorn. The way I remember this one is; the Willow Tit actually excavates its nest hole in a soft, partly rotted, tree trunk. Because of this, I reckon, it has a thicker neck than the similar Marsh Tit which adapts pre-existing holes. A more reliable badge of the Willow is a small light-coloured patch on its wing.Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'
