1st February 2010 2009
I wasn’t very fortunate when I tried to draw whooper swans in Pembrokeshire during the New Year period because they chose to graze at the far side of a field, making observation difficult. However, about a week ago I was lucky enough to see another whooper swan at the Old Moor RSPB reserve.
The whooper swan had been present for a few days and was feeding in shallow water on the far side of a lake. Although it was quite distant, it was easily observed using a telescope. The swan spent a lot of its time with its head below water as it fed. Its head and neck were quite dirty and I assume that these had become stained as it fed.
The lengthening days are beginning to have an effect on the great spotted woodpeckers
in the school grounds. During the past week, I have twice heard a woodpecker drumming
and I observed one as it hammered on a section of dead branch at the top of an ash
tree in which there are number of woodpecker nest-
My weekend was spent at Sherwood Forest, where I sketched the twigs shown on this page. One twig came from what looked like a young sycamore but the buds don’t look like the ones on the native sycamore. I think the tree, which was growing on a campsite, was probably a cultivated variety of Acer. The ash twig was a particularly particularly thick and had especially large, dark buds.