Tags
blackthorn, Blackthorn blossom, Blackthorn in bloom in December, Blackthorn in bloom in January, flora phenology, phenology of tree blossom
This winter season continues to provide phenological surprises. I saw my first Blackthorn blossom on Christmas Eve, during a quick visit to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park to provide an early Christmas dinner of berry-flavoured suet pellets to my crow friends.
And then, during yesterday’s walk, which took me through fields perhaps half a mile north of the country park, I found another Blackthorn tree with blossom open on a couple of its branches – this despite several very cold days and a bit of blasting from (though we missed the worst of) Storm Goretti.
earthstar 
I too noticed a few Blackthorn blossoms recently, whilst out on a run between xmas and New Year. Surprisingly, these were up on the fellside at an altitude of 800ft! What were they thinking?
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Brave Blackthorn blossom! I wonder if it survived the heavy snow – assuming you got dumped on. 🙂
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Quite remarkably, we’ve had no snow at all! It’s fallen all around, mostly outside a radius of 15 miles, but nothing here whatsoever.
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Same here – gale-force winds to the west of us, snow on the hills up the valleys, but nothing here. I confess to being disappointed; as a Kiwi who’s lived in snow-less places most of my life, I’d hoped for a good dumping of the white stuff. 🙂
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