Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 75

COOTS ARE BEGINNING to collect reeds for their tower-like nests, which are usually some distance out from the bank of a lake. Sometimes the reeds they carry in their beaks are as wide as the birds are long. Deeper in the reeds, water rails are calling. They make loud squeals when they are fighting or courting, and they also have a repeated sharp note that they sometimes use when they come out into the open. Recognising this note can help one to spot them. They are like bluish-grey moorhens with long red beaks and striped flanks, and step delicately in and out of the reeds, but they never stay exposed for long.

On lakesides and river banks, the large, soft leaves of common comfrey are growing fast: they look like green cows’ tongues. The bell-like flowers that will follow in April are very varied: they may be pink, purple or white, and there is a form called Russian comfrey with flowers that start pink and turn blue.