February on the Southwell Trail

After posting some photographs from Birmingham in 2014, I return to current photography which has be hampered by the ongoing virus lockdown. The main event during February was a second fall of snow which added some variety to the photography but in comparison to this time in previous years, the activity was significantly reduced. 

Before I move to the snow scenes, both on the Southwell Trail and on Combs Lane, I wanted cover a selection of detail shots taken along the trail. These are a simple collection, looking at the old and new growth in the hedging and on the trees that line the path. 

The new growth came mainly from the Hazel catkins with the first signs of Willow catkins appearing at the end of the month. 

Hazel has both male and female flowers on the same tree (monoecious). The male catkins are the most obvious, long and yellow, like lambs tales. These show as early as November/December. The female flowers are more difficult to spot and are bud-like with tiny red styles. In fact, the styles are so small it is hard to find a good focus as the camera locks on the branches first - manual focus is often the only resort. 

These were the hazel catkins starting with the males, and then females, with the final photograph showing the context for both (the red dots, although out of focus, can just be seen behind the male catkins): 

The male and female flowers of the Willow tree grow on separate trees (dioecious). Before the male catkins come into flower they are covered in a greyish fur which leads to the common description of pussy willows. These were the catkins as they started to appear and represented the first signs that spring was approaching: 

The evergreen ivy was in the middle of it flowering and fruiting cycle during February. Only mature plants produce the dome shaped flowers known as umbels which go on to produce berries that are black when ripe. These were a few umbels I captured during the month:

Coming to the end of their cycle was the Hawthorn fruit known as haws. The next event for hawthorns will be the spring blossoms which appear before the new leaves sprout:

A few dried oak leaves had stubbornly held onto the trees over the winter and I could just see some  new buds emerging:

Finally, a seed pod of the honesty plant or ‘lunaria’, so called because its papery membrane is moon-shaped’. It is also known as the ‘money plant’ e.g. in the USA I think it is called silver dollars. The seeds have long gone but the membranes can stay on the plant during the winter if protected from the weather:

March on the Southwell Trail - Part 1

In recent months I have continued to document aspects of the Southwell Trail that interest me like the seasonal changes to trees, the weather conditions, farming activities, and latterly the wildflowers as they start to bloom, and, although I captured most of this last year, the annual cycle seems long enough to enjoy it all over again and this is what caught my attention during March:

The month started with strong gales and heavy rain which restricted the photographic activity on the  Trail to the occasional bright spells. These were some of the rain sodden scenes on the path:

Photographing the trail on a regular basis, and writing the photoblog, has encourage me to be more accurate when I am identifying wildflowers and the different trees. Sometimes, however, I have to see a tree go through a full annual cycle to be sure of its identity. For example, last year I photographed a catkin which I tentatively identified as hornbeam. Unfortunately, I only made the identification when processing my photos some months later. By then it was too late to match the photo with the tree and I had forgotten exactly where on the trail the photograph was taken.  I had a suspicion that a group of trees, that I had previous thought were young beech trees, might actually be hornbeam and this was confirmed this month as fresh catkins started to appear:

Also blooming were the willow catkins. This is one of the willows on the trail plus a close up of the catkins:

Another willow on the trail was chopped down at the start of the month which was a real shame. It was a nice tree that seemed healthy enough and wasn't obstructing the path as far as I could see. I am sure the maintenance volunteers had their reasons but I was surprised about the anger I felt when I saw only the stumps remaining. This is how the tree looked in January 2019 followed by its new condition - as I say, it is a shame that it had to be cut back so far:

Going back to the rain as the start of the month, these are some images I captured of a passing but shower. At the edge of the cloud in the first image are some heavy bulges which I am fairly sure would be an example of mammatus cloud:

As is often the case in early spring, the heavy clouds roll on in one direction and there in fine, blue sky weather in the other direction:

Some of the earliest wildflowers of the season are Lesser Celandine, these are a couple of examples:

Lastly, March is also the month where the blossom start to bloom. The earliest to flower is Damson followed by Blackthorn. Unfortunately the nicely flowering Damson below lost all its flowers in the early March gales. As for the Blackthorn flowers I have quite a few images which I will group together in the next post.

Spring on the Southwell Trail - Part 6

Anxious to get the spring series going with some seasonal shots, I went looking for early examples of wildflowers. I enjoy the wildflower spotting and whilst it is more record photography than anything creative, the flowers are an integral part of the Southwell Trail at this time of year.

The challenge is making the correct identification, some wildflowers look very similar and it is easy to make mistakes. I try to cross reference most of the photos with books and internet searches but if I am unclear I will be cautious with the final identification. This is what I found whilst walking along the trail:

Chickweed

Common Dog Violet

Flowering Currant

Perennial Honesty 

Red Dead Nettle

Forsythia

Lesser Celandine

Emerging Blossom (possibly cherry)

Hornbeam Catkins

I think these are hornbeam catkins but to be honest it is not a tree I am overly familiar with. Over the years I have probably confused hornbeams with beech trees as they look very similar, although the former is part of the birch family. This year I want to make a positive identification of the hornbeam along the trail.

Willow Catkins

Ash Tree Bud

Sycamore Tree Bud (not totally sure though)