The Beauty of the Hazel tree

 Hazel trees are looking at their absolute best at the moment! These beautiful trees are draped with wonderful dangly catkins at this time of year. Look at these two trees in Craiglockart Dell alongside the Water of Leith.

When you get up close to the trees, you can see how beautiful the male catkins are

A few of them haven't quite matured yet, see the tighter catkins at the front in the photo below 

It's very easy to be so impressed by the male catkins that you don't even notice the tiny female flowers, but it's well worth taking some time to find them - click on the photos below for a closer look

These Hazel trees are healthy and thriving, but sometimes trees need to be cut down, either because of disease or because they have become dangerous.

 

It's always sad to see trees being chopped, but it does offer an opportunity to have a look at mosses and lichens that otherwise would stay out of sight high up in the tree tops. Here are a selection from this particular tree (I haven't identified the species yet, though there does seem to be some dog's tooth lichen in the first photo. If you can identify any of the species show, let me know in the comments.)

Meanwhile on the river, this Grey Heron was fishing for some lunch

I also had a nice view of a Jay, the first one I've seen along this stretch of river.