Coltsfoot.

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 I am relatively new  to noticing coltsfoot. Its pretty localised and to the uninitiated it looks like a dandelion.


I guess the give away feature is the structure of the stem. These specimens were spotted in Hartley village by the beck a couple of miles away from us. Coltsfoot is found throughout Europe North Africa and parts of Asia. The plant was introduced to the Americas by settlers who found it a useful herbal remedy although we now know it can be dangerously toxic. This is a great sign of spring and always seems to arrive at the same time as the first lambs.

Diary Notes.
One sighting of the female sparrowhawk. A warm and sunny day with day time temps up to around 14C.
Still a lot of common gull about. I did a bit of a pond dipping exercise and discovered newts in the pond. I need to do a bit more research before I can tell you what kind they were! In the course of the pond dipping I also found this rather splendid dragonfly larva. I know from keeping aquariums that these larva are voracious eaters and eat anything they find. I think this larva is one of the Hawker dragonflies but am afraid I can't tell which one. One dead frog in the pond (herons?) but still no frogspawn.


I set an experimental moth trap last night as the weather was much milder. I was not really surprised to catch no moths at all. It is still very early - but I was curious! Camera traps got a close up of a heron which I rather liked.




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