May 12th – That cheeky squirrel. I was cruising around the canal looking for the swan family – still nowhere to be found – on my way home from work. I stopped at the hazel thicket on the bend by the Watermead Eastate to answer a call. All the time I felt I was being watched.
It seems Nutkin wants me to move along now, and not make a fuss….
Yet another example of why I’ll never make a wildlife photographer…
February 4th – Another click, and the seasonal mechanism advances a notch. On the canal bank at Walsall Wood, hazel catkins, one of the first signs of spring… Then, near Clayhanger Bridge in the undergrowth, daffodils are growing and starting to form buds.
Jack-in-the-green has tapped his cane on the ground and told the plants it’s time to grow. More power to him!
August 4th – By the canal in Brownhills, opposite the Watermead Eastate, there’s a little secret not many people seem to know about. It’s a hedge of hazel trees. I guess they were planted here 25 years ago when the refuse tip that had been on this site was reclaimed. Now mature, and tall, they are covered in dense, beautifully green leaves. I’d never remotely consider eating the nuts considering the previous use of the land below, but it’s moot anyway, as normally the squirrels strip these trees bare of fruit before it’s even ripe.
Sadly, the squirrels will not be so fortunate this year, as in the whole length of the hedge, I spotted only two nuts. It must have been a bad season for these trees.
August 12th – rounding the bend in the canal opposite Brownhills Canoe Centre, I noticed some debris on the towpath under the hazel thicket that’s grown so well there in recent years. Taking a closer look, I realised that the detritus was partially eaten hazel, or cob nuts, stripped by hungry squirrels. These are a fine, nutritious snack for our furry pals, and birds and foxes will Hoover up the remainder. I always wondered why I’d never seen these bushes fruit…
September 12th – A day of fearsome winds, seemingly crafted on Satan’s back doorstep which tormented me all the way to Great Bridge. Fortunately, the wind honoured it’s bargain and blew me back up the canal through Moxley and Darlaston to Walsall, and it was in Moxley that I spotted something I never noticed before; right in the centre of this industrial, urban place, there’s a row of Hazel trees which are currently fruiting large hazelnuts. The squirrels are having a ball and discarded, nibbled shells litter the ground beneath. This is a truly remarkable thing – Moxley was once a very polluted place, and this is a sign of an improved environment. I’m still stunned, to be honest.
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