Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 84

IN SPITE OF cold winds, the creamy white flowers of the blackthorn are opening. They come before the leaves, and soon the hedges across the fields will look as if they are covered with snow. This shrub is named after the black bark on its trunk but even in winter this is usually concealed by the dense mass of thorny grey twigs.

There is a brief lull now in the growth on other trees and bushes but on sycamores the buds are fat and green, and the springy twigs curve up as if eager to break into leaf. Young sycamores often grow close together, and their bare tops rattle against each other in the wind. A small moorland hawk that can be seen along the shore, or on farms near the sea, is the merlin. It is a brisk flyer, and chases small birds of the open country such as skylarks and meadow pipits. It generally flies low over the ground, now beating its wings rapidly, now gliding. Like other hawks, it will turn to beetles when it cannot find larger prey. The male has a noticeable blue back; the female, which is a larger bird, is a pale greyish-brown. In the summer, merlins nest in heather on the moors, or take over an old crow’s nest in a fir or pine.