Hazel Trees

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 At this time of year before the trees are in leaf, the most obvious tree feature are the hazel catkins of which there are many here.



The  catkins (sometimes called lambs's tails) are actually the male flowers. Hazel are monoecious , meaning that both male and female flowers are present on the same plant. However, for fertilisation to take place the pollen must come from a different tree than the female flowers. It doesn't matter that there are few insects about at this time of the year as these trees are wind pollinated. The female flowers are tiny little red structures (I have to confess that I had never ever noticed them until I was researching this). 


Bees like this pollen (even though they don't help to pollinate ) but have difficulty carrying it as the pollen grains are not sticky.
Hazel trees are important in the ecosystem. The hazel nuts (cob nuts) are an important source of food for squirrels, mice, woodpecker etc and the leaves are attractive to moth caterpillars which in turn feed the birds. I walked for 8k along the old railway line yesterday and the banks are covered with hazel trees  all with catkins.

Diary Notes.
Still very chilly with day time temps not rising above 6C. On a walk yesterday disturbed a roe deer family. Lots of buzzards about. Watched a noisy rookery at Newbiggin on Lune whilst on my walk. On my way out to collect my camera traps this morning I disturbed a male sparrowhawk by the bird feeders. Camera traps today revealed some good shots of a heron on our pond.






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