Lone shelduck, feeding some distance from the hide at Doxey Marshes.
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The first few pussy willow catkins beginning to emerge from their buds, another stage in the arrival of spring.
Two of the three great crested grebes on Pool Hall fisheries lake towards the end of March. Each bird had a different stretch of the water as its territory, and was swimming up and down on patrol to make sure the others kept out.
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2016: first bluebells
The first bluebells I spotted this year, seen earlier today.
Small clumps, not a full-scale carpet, growing on a sheltered and shady bank by the canal not far from Aldersley Junnction.
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Two herons high in tree, sunning
Two herons up high, in a conifer on the West Park lake island. Both catching the morning sun.
Although they were on the same bough they were standing so that the vegetation separating them meant each could ignore the other.
The paler bird, nearer the end of the branch, is an immature. The one with the darker patches also has nuptual plumes – the ones dangling at the front of its chest. But for some reason it seems not to be with other adult birds at one of the breeding sites locally.
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Budding: cluster of oak leaf buds
Still tiny towards the end of last month, the buds which later develop into oak leaves.