Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 63

THE HIGH WINDS drive the coots off large lakes and reservoirs to forage for food on the banks and grassy causeways. They stalk about confidently on their sturdy green legs and lobed feet, poking around with their beaks in the low vegetation. Even in heavy rain with little wind, they will stay on the water and continue diving for waterweed, but they feel uncomfortable on choppy water.

Most small birds take shelter on a windy day, but greenfinches can still be seen flying high, making their harsh twitter. Blackbirds skim very low across the lanes on their way from one hedge to another.

Flowers are opening on the elm twigs: they are hairy crimson tufts that give the whole tree a reddish look for a week or two. Very few large elm trees have survived Dutch elm disease, but there are plenty of small elms in the hedges. They come up as suckers, and flourish for ten or twenty years, but then they, too, die and fresh suckers replace them.

Female flowers are opening on the hazel bushes: they look like tiny red hats balanced on top of the leaf buds. The wind will blow the pollen onto them from the dangling yellow catkins.