Tag Archives: Hazel

Caterpillar in a tent

15 Saturday May 2021

Posted by in insects, leaves, trees

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While wandering through my favourite woodland earlier this week, I noticed small areas of damage on some Hazel leaves. It looked like a little critter had been munching on them and, checking further, I soon discovered a lot of leaves had suffered similar damage.

Closer inspection of one particular leaf soon revealed the culprit, a caterpillar, tucked away in a snug little tent it had created by binding two leaves together with silken thread. From there it could easily venture out to eat, yet retreat when threatened by predators or bad weather. Smart thinking!

210515 winter moth (2)

I think the caterpillar may be the larva of a Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) but I haven’t yet been able to confirm my identification (Update 16/5: ID now confirmed as Winter moth). Once I was alert to their presence, I noticed more leaf damage and several more ‘tents’, as well as a smaller caterpillar feeding out in the open.

New year, new hope

01 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by in trees

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A new day, a new year, new life, new hope! One of the first things I noticed during today’s long New Year’s Day walk was these Hazel flowers, the tiny pink female flower and, nearby, the long droopy male catkin. And it made me feel hopeful. Though we humans enter 2021 beset by the devastation and grief of a global pandemic, the looming disasters of climate change and environmental destruction, and, in the UK, the self-inflicted damage of Brexit, yet Nature continues its cycles of life, shining a little glimmer of light in the darkness and gloom. Let’s cling to that light and let it inspire us to make 2021 a greener, more environmentally friendly year, for the future of our planet and ourselves.

210101 hazel flowers (1)

347/365 Early catkins

13 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in nature, trees, winter

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As I always do when I need to be ‘soothed and healed’, I went for a long walk with Nature as soon as I could get away today. There was a bitterly cold wind blowing but I was well wrapped up and, to my delight, I found a few wildflowers still in bloom, fed sunflower hearts to the hungry small birds, and then, much to my surprise, found some Hazel catkins out already – and not just the male catkins, but several of the tiny pink female flowers, which seems quite early.

191213 hazel catkins

69/365 The sex life of Hazels

10 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by in 365DaysWildin2019, nature, trees

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The catkins of the Hazel tree (Corylus avellana) have almost finished now, which is shame as they are such lovely things, such a pretty symbol of springtime. The catkins, often known as ‘lambs’ tails’, are the male flowers, shedding their pollen as a fine yellow dust as they blow in the wind. The female flowers are less conspicuous, tiny compared to the catkins but also very pretty, a bright lipstick pink. Although the Hazel is monoecious, which means both male and female flowers can be found on the same tree, the female flowers must be pollinated by pollen from a different tree if they are to go on and produce Hazel nuts.