Tree Year - Winter

Some of you may remember that I've been 'studying' some trees for the Tree Year project. (You can see all my Tree Year blogposts here). Tree Year actually ended earlier this month, but that passed me by and I had been thinking of the project on a calendar year basis. Anyway, here are my trees in their winter guises.

One of the cherry trees opposite our flat.
The group of hornbeams alongside the Water of Leith.

Tree Year

I've said before on this blog how wonderful the autumn colours are this year. Our flat overlooks a couple of cherry trees that I have been casually blogging about for Tree Year. These trees for some reason always seem to lose their leaves later than most other cherry trees in Edinburgh. This is how one of them looked this morning - the photo really doesn't do justice to the full glory of the colours!

Meanwhile in Colinton Dell (which is an area of the Water of Leith that thankfully won't be affected by the Flood Prevention Works) this is how the hornbeams (that I've been studying for Tree Year) looked earlier this week. Notice in the first photo how some of the branches of the hornbeams are full of very yellow leaves, while others are full of leaves that are still very green!

As ever, red text in this post contains hyperlinks which take you to other websites where you can find out more.

Hornbeam Update

This is my favourite time of year for the hornbeam trees, their chandelier fruits are so vividly yellow and set off so nicely against the leaves that are still mostly green.

As many of you know, I'm following the hornbeams in Colinton Dell, by the Water of Leith, for Tree Year.

You can read all my Tree Year posts here.

For Nature Notes

Autumnal Hornbeam

As you may remember, I've been studying the hornbeams along the Water of Leith for Tree Year. The wonderful chandelier fruits of the tree are turning yellow just now, they're such a pretty sight!

This tree is not native to Scotland (though I think it's native to the south of England) and was planted along the river as its wood is very hard and was used a lot in construction in the years when there were mills along the river. (There were over 70 at one time!). I walk along the same part of the Water of Leith every week, as part of my voluntary work with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. So I pass these trees every week, though I haven't blogged about them as often as perhaps I had intended to when I first heard about Tree year!

For Tree Year and Nature Notes

The Value of Woodlands

I made my usual walk through Colinton and Craiglockart Dells by the Water of Leith today. It's a wonderful area of ancient woodland (well the area has been wooded for centuries, although it isn't undisturbed and some of the species aren't native).


The hornbeam (a non-native species, first planted centuries ago as its wood was nice and hard and useful for building parts for the mills that used to line the banks of the river) is just starting to show its female catkins.

Some parts of the Water of Leith (though not the Dells) are undergoing building works at the moment for the new Flood Prevention Defences. Trees have been cut down in places to allow this work to go ahead. The council and the building contractors have promised that the banks will be regenerated after the work, but this will mean that the flood prevention barriers will be seeded with wildflowers, which is fine but the trees are very unlikely to come back. The Flood Defence work is seen as necessary to protect the housing along the banks of the river, but if planners had refused permission for housing to be built so close to the river then it wouldn't be necessary to damage the ecology of the riverbanks in this way.

Meanwhile down in England, though the Government seems for now to have abandoned its plans of selling the forests, several areas of ancient woodland are threatened by development:

The planned High Speed rail link between London and Birmingham would damage or destroy a number of areas of ancient woodland. High speed rail is seen as environmentally friendly because at least theoretically it diverts people away from flying, though personally I thought the normal speed rail link between London and Birmingham was already quick enough - why is society so obsessed with speed? Is it appropriate or necessary to destroy the environment to reduce travel times? You can read more about the proposed High Speed Rail Link and the damage it would do here. The page also includes a list of ways in which you can help campaign against this development.

It seems that a recommendation has been made to expand a quarry (despite independent research showing that existing quarries can supply enough stone) that threatens Oaken Wood, an ancient woodland in Kent. You can find out more about that here. STOP PRESS (10 May) this quarry has been given the go ahead so that is another piece of ancient woodland that will be seriously compromised.

You can find out more about these and other woods under threat in the UK and the valuable work the Woodland Trust does to try to save these areas on the trust's website here.

For Tree Year.

Tree Year

The cherry trees, even the pink ones, are already mostly past their best, I took the above photo by the Water of Leith yesterday, while the photo below goes back a few days more, when they were still at their best.

I finally managed to get a decent photo of the male hornbeam catkins, see below, this is on one of the hornbeams in the group along the Water of Leith, that I photographed in this post.

And finally, this is an apple tree in the 'Hidden Meadow' near Redhall Gardens along the Water of Leith. I took the photo yesterday, and the air was full of birdsong and the sun was shining beautifully. A perfect Spring day.

for Tree Year

Hornbeams

Aha, as Spring progresses and I can recognise trees better I have been reminded that there are other hornbeams near the large, damaged hornbeam that I've focussed on so far for Tree Year. This is excellent news, not only for the presence of hornbeams along the Water of Leith (where they are a historically important species given that their wood is very hard which made them important for use in the mills that used to line this river) but also for my blogging for Tree Year as now I have better access to the details of leaves and catkins. Unfortunately last time I was there my catkins photos didn't really turn out too well. I've not quite got used to how best to use depth of field in my new camera and it often leads to blurring. I may collect some fallen catkins next time I'm along the river and photograph those. The make catkins are quite lovely at this time of year, though its still the chandelier female catkins that are the most beautiful feature of this interesting tree.

And look here for a photo of the large bee fly, which I've seen a couple of times recently, including along the Water of Leith earlier this week. What a lovely insect it is, isn't it! (I couldn''t get my own photo unfortunately!).

for Shadow Shot Sunday

In bloom

The cherry tree across the road, that I'm observing for Tree Year is now in full bloom. These pink cherry trees seem to be slower to come to full bloom than the white ones.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I can't post there at the moment for some reason, hopefully that will sort itself out soon...

Water of Leith

I had a lovely wander through the Dells along the Water of Leith today. The one drawback was the amount of litter, I collected two big bin bags full and that wasn't even all there was. It wasn't helped by the fact that the bins were overflowing. It was a lovely day though. Most trees are definitely spring like. The exceptions being some of the ash trees, which look distinctly wintery still:

The wych elms are fruiting already:

though some of them are between flowering and fruiting:

The hornbeam that I'm 'studying' for Tree Year is definitely further on than it was last time I shared a photo. Thes catkins by the way are the male catkins, the female chandelier-like catkins won't appear until later in the year (and they're worth waiting for, they're lovely).

The birds were singing beautifully, the blackcaps are now in full voice. I had my best ever view of a singing blackcap this morning in fact. Plus there was a group of about four or five chiffchaffs chasing each other round a stand of birch trees. And I found this segment of egg shell that had been dropped by the side of the path. The parent birds always take the broken egg shells away from the nests when the chicks hatch so that predators aren't drawn to the nest. STV North Edinburgh yesterday interviewed me about the course I teach about the Water of Leith for the University of Edinburgh Office of Lifelong Learning, you can read the interview on their website here.

For Nature Notes.

Norway Maple

One of my favourite trees at this time of year is the Norway Maple. I love the vivid yellow flowers! I took these photos in the Meadows in Edinburgh. Talking of trees, this is what the cherry blossom across the road looks like now, just budding. it's interesting that the cherry trees in Edinburgh are all at different stages, some are in full flower already....

For Tree Year

Blackbird

a male blackbird hops energetically round the branches of the cherry tree, wiping its beak on a twig every so often

For A River of Stones

for Tree Year

Introducing the Hornbeam

I'm participating in Tree Year this year, and will be concentrating on two trees, a cherry tree across the road from our flat (you can read a bit about that here) and a hornbeam on the bank of the Water of Leith.

Unfortunately this tree was badly damaged by heavy snow and storms in December last year, but it's still an impressive tree.

The European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is found across Europe but is not native to Scotland. This individual was planted along with quite a few others along the Water of Leith specifically to produce timber for the mills that once lined the river (yes its hard to believe now, as you walk along the quiet wooded river in the Dells, but this was once the industrial centre of Edinburgh). The hornbeam was used a lot in construction because its wood is particularly hard.

The hornbeam has a fluted trunk, though the bark itself is smooth. It has fairly nondescript leaves (which are just in bud at the moment, but the photos didn't come out!) but has beautiful catkins that grow in the summer and last through to early winter. They look like mini-chandeliers.

Cherry Tree

This is the usual view we have of the cherry tree across the road. There are three cherry trees outside the building in the photo, but this is the one we have the best view of. There used to be four trees but one was chopped down when the building was converted from a Day Centre to flats. The tree is on private property and in the middle of a residential street so I won't be getting as close to this one as I can to the hornbeam which is my other tree I'm observing for Tree Year. The cherry tree doesn't look much at this time of year, but in spring it is beautiful with blossom and there are often birds flying around it.

I will introduce the hornbeam once I have been able to visit it again, the path along the river is still very icy in parts, despite the general thaw we've had recently!

For Tree Year

The Tree Year

three blue tits chase each other round and round the branches of the cherry tree

for A River of Stones

I've also found another blogging project to take part in! This is The Tree Year. The idea is to pick a tree (or any number of trees) and to observe them through the year and to write about your observations, take photos, sketch the tree. Notice the lichens and mosses that grow on the tree, the insects that live on it and the birds that feed on it. Also notice how the tree changes through the year.

The trees I'm going to observe are the cherry trees across the road from where we live, which I can look at every day and a hornbeam along the Water of Leith, which I pass every week (though at the moment it is out of reach because part of the pathway along that part of the river is covered in sheet ice).