31st March, 2000

Horse chestnut bud (opening).As always, the horse chestnut trees are the first trees to begin to burst into leaf. The huge, sticky buds are just beginning to open to reveal the bright green leaves and the flower buds. It will be a very short time before the trees are in flower again.

There has been some typical spring weather recently, with a few hard frosts making life difficult for plants that have started to grow and for insects and amphibians that have started to become active. This morning, the grounds were white with frost and the newly emerged leaves of some plants, such as elderberry, were wilting. However, this is Horse chestnut flower bud.a common sight and most plants recover from this effect, though not all.

The sound of woodpecker drumming is a common one again. Today, I watched a greater spotted woodpecker drumming high in a beech tree. It had found a place where a dead branch has fallen away leaving a thin spike of dry, dead wood. Hammering on this produces a much louder sound than would be produced by a solid piece of living timber.