This yew in the woodland at Pendeford Mill LNR is a real veteran, having been dated to being two thousand years old. Yews can be very long-lived. Ancient churchyards often also have historic yews, though not of a vintage centuries older than the arrival of Christianity in Britain.
A second visit to Pendeford Mill LNR, a week or so later that when the pictures in yesterday’s post were taken. Herons on their nests high in the trees on the island in the pool. The only signs of occupancy of most nests a head and perhaps shoulders peeping out.
One nest, high in a conifer, where it was just possible to make out the bird standing and shuffling around as it tried to find a more comfortable position to brood. Notice also the markings on the branch below this nest, showing where the occupants leave the nest to go to the toiled.
Blackthorn hedge over on the other side of the Penk, the flowers opening before the leaves develop, turning the bushes white.
As well as the birds brooding on their nests in the heronry, there were four herons in the grassy field next to Pendeford Mill Nature Reserve. Three were half-hidden by the ups and downs of the land: this was the only one which could be seen full length.
View from above and below of an old willow bracket fungus on one of the willows on Doxey Marshes, the network of cracks on the upper surface of the fungus matching the texture of the mature bark.
As I walked around the big pool at Pendeford Mill, I finally realised why I wasn’t seeing any herons on the island. They were indeed present, but at the nest, only occasionally visible when they raised themselves above the parapet of the nest while I had a sight-line through gaps in the trees on the shore and the island.