Wild West Yorkshire nature diary
germander speedwellnuthatch

Nuthatches

Saturday 4th March 2000


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label on telegraph polede-restricted signs
'COBRA 1964'; the metal label on the telegraph pole suggests that this pole has lasted well. I wouldn't have noticed it except my attention was drawn to the 'owl's face' pattern of rust on the pair of old enamelled de-restricted signs on the post. Come to think of it, a cobra does have an owl's face pattern on its 'hood'.

cumulus clouds

germander speedwell
On the south-facing side of the lane Germander Speedwell is now well in flower, bringing pure sky blue to the grassy bank. From horizon to horizon squadrons of cumulus stretch away into the perspective.


nuthatchnuthatch As we sit for a midway break in Thornhill park, a group of Long-tailed Tits fly into a tree near the old moat. Then I notice that there's a bird progressing along hanging upside down from the underside of a bough. My first thought is 'woodpecker!', but it's, for us, a rarer sight; a Nuthatch, in fact a pair of them. We don't remember having seen them around here for years. The nuthatch is a neat bird, resembling a small woodpecker with a chisel-like bill. Unlike tree creepers, which generally make their way up the trunk of a tree (and look rather like a mouse as they climb along), nuthatches seem to be able to move about at will over the trunk and boughs.

They're actually more pinkish underneath than I've shown here.

Richard Bell
Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'

  
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