18 Saturday Mar 2023
I’ve seen a couple of Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) but didn’t manage to get photos of those, so I was delighted yesterday to find a Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), which was so busy feasting on the pollen of willow catkins that it stayed still for some pics.
06 Sunday Mar 2022
Tags
Goat willow, goslings, Grey willow, male willow catkins, Pussy willow, Salix caprea, Salix cinerea, willow catkins
One of the sure signs of Spring for me is the appearance of the ‘goslings’, and by that I don’t mean birds, but rather the gorgeous male catkins of the Goat willow (Salix caprea) and Grey willow (Salix cinerea). You probably know them as pussy willow but, according to my Flora Britannica, ‘they used to be called “goslings” … because their texture and colour were like newly hatched geese’.
02 Thursday Apr 2020
By sheer coincidence, author Robert Macfarlane’s ‘word of the day’ today on Twitter is cat’s-paw.
He writes about them: ‘nickname for catkins of the smaller willows/sallows (Goat willow, pussy willow, grey willow); among the earliest signs of spring; first grey & silky, then growing a glowing aura of tiny flowers. Often brought into houses at Easter/on Palm Sunday.’
I had already decided that today’s post would be on this same topic so here are the photos I’ve been collecting over the past week or so. These are of different trees so it’s quite likely they are not all the same species of willow (and I’m useless at working out which is which), but I love the way the catkins develop from soft furriness to beautiful bursts of yellow, and the insects love them too.
earthstar 
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