Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Tuesday 16th March 1999
COLLARED DOVE and Starling come down to the lawn by the pond, while alongside the canal there are Pheasants and Long-tailed Tits. The farmer spreads fertilizer on the riverside levees where cattle graze in the summer.
With Elizabethan England still fresh in my mind from yesterday's film, the closed flowerheads of Dandelion remind me of the ruffs and slashed sleeves of Tudor costume. It's French name 'pis-en-lit' has a ring of those down to earth times too (it is used in herbal medicine as a diuretic).
When it is fine and still at this time of year, the evening chorus is almost as appealing as the full dawn chorus in early May. It is a little easier to follow just now before our familiar residents are joined by migrant singers.
COLLARED DOVE and Starling come down to the lawn by the pond, while alongside the canal there are Pheasants and Long-tailed Tits. The farmer spreads fertilizer on the riverside levees where cattle graze in the summer.
With Elizabethan England still fresh in my mind from yesterday's film, the closed flowerheads of Dandelion remind me of the ruffs and slashed sleeves of Tudor costume. It's French name 'pis-en-lit' has a ring of those down to earth times too (it is used in herbal medicine as a diuretic).
When it is fine and still at this time of year, the evening chorus is almost as appealing as the full dawn chorus in early May. It is a little easier to follow just now before our familiar residents are joined by migrant singers.