Lockdown diaries 25 April

A pleasant walk today, in which my old friend the Kingfisher popped up very close to me while I was taking a brief rest from my daily walk. I was happy to see him, especially as he sat still long enough for this photo.

male kingfisher
male kingfisher

I was puzzled for a while by what seemed to be patchy fog, in the middle of a hot and sunny afternoon. It turned out to be the downy seeds of the willow tree – the “pussy willow” –  drifting on the wind in their millions. Willow is one of the most resilient of trees, as I find out to myself once years ago when I planted a few sticks in the ground to mrk te edge of a lawn I was seeding – only to find each of the sticks growing into vigorous new willow trees.

Today I also saw my first banded demoiselles of the year – these beautiful small damselflies come in two striking metallic colours, blue for the boys and green for the girls. Watching them dance over the water made me feel that summer (hopefully a lockdown-free summer) is fast approaching.

 

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