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Spring at Leighton Moss

28/2/2023

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PictureTufted duck
The days grow longer and tomorrow is the first day of spring. Birds are resplendent in breeding plumage.  Males show in bold, bright colour with females less colourful  but with intricate plumage pattern. When  courting birds  swim together and roost close to each other that's an opportunity to identify females.
There are rafts of tufted ducks, predominantly males with black and white plumage and a panache, a long crest of dark feathers present in the breeding season.  The female has a blue bill and a hint of a crest, her plumage is dark brown. 


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Reprise of Sizergh snowdrops and aconites

13/2/2023

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PictureSnowdrops, Galanthus nivale
 
​Snowdrops and aconites are splendid in Sizergh gardens. Along our way are mossy banks and snowdrops with delicate green markings within the bell-shaped flower. Snowdrops cluster beneath the trees in the  orchard where  fieldfare ate windfalls in mid-December. A mossy stone wall has niche and crevice, as if inhabited by mice and vole, a thoroughfare for stoat. Here were dragonflies in summer.  


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Sizergh to Park End Moss with February snowdrops

5/2/2023

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PictureSnowdrops and aconites at Sizergh
On a frosty February morning  the  trees are bare and sunlight pours down to the woodland floor where mosses grow bright and snowdrops appear. Snowdrops, Glanathus nivalis, the milk-white flower of the snow. Coming at Candlemass, 2nd February, they're  known as  Candlemass bells. 
In early November autumn fruits were the seasonal highlight by the lake at Sizergh.  An exotic rowan (Sorbus Vilmorinii)  bore a mass of pink berries.  Now light penetrates through winter trees and the herb layer responds with a flourish.




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    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

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