Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Wednesday 17th March 1999
WARM ENOUGH for me to wear shorts (it must be spring) and for us to take our sandwiches to a bench overlooking the canal. Our first picnic and the first ant of the season appears (quite a large brown species). The sun stirs the first ladybird, a seven-spot, wandering along the branch of flowering currant.
Smooth Sowthistle is in flower, a plant growing from a crevice in a south-facing stone wall. Dandelions open up in the warmth.
A Song Thrush on our roof, the song has an air of urgency and alarm. A Kestrel hunts over the neglected meadow by the wood. There are Long-tailed tits by the canal, along with Pheasant, Crows and Great tit, and Long-tails also visit the weeping willow next door, which is coming into fresh green leaf.
WARM ENOUGH for me to wear shorts (it must be spring) and for us to take our sandwiches to a bench overlooking the canal. Our first picnic and the first ant of the season appears (quite a large brown species). The sun stirs the first ladybird, a seven-spot, wandering along the branch of flowering currant.
Smooth Sowthistle is in flower, a plant growing from a crevice in a south-facing stone wall. Dandelions open up in the warmth.
A Song Thrush on our roof, the song has an air of urgency and alarm. A Kestrel hunts over the neglected meadow by the wood. There are Long-tailed tits by the canal, along with Pheasant, Crows and Great tit, and Long-tails also visit the weeping willow next door, which is coming into fresh green leaf.