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Whilst walking along the river at this time of year, look out for what looks like a dropped pom pom of some kind. This pink, tassled flower thrives on moist ground, so along the river and in damp ditches is the place to look.The flower spike is made up of lots of tightly packed small flowers (making it a prized stop for early bees) and appear before the leaves. The large round rhubarb-like leaves will be very familiar to walkers as they can be 1m wide! It gets its name Butter

The bright yellow flowers of this extremely thorny evergreen are at their best in spring, though it has a reputation for being virtually always in flower, hence the old country joke “When gorse is out of blossom, kissing’s out of fashion”. This impression is due to different species flowering at different times. Around Otley you could see some at Christmas. As well as being protective, the thorns actually do most of the plant’s photosynthesising, rather than the tiny leaves.

Not as large and loud as the Great Tit, or as colourful or cute as the Blue and Long-tailed varieties, the Coal Tit’s latin name translates as “dull black” tit, though this under-plays its subtle colouring somewhat. The brilliant white nape (back of the head) helps identification. Like Long-tailed Tits, flocks keep in touch with each other with seemingly incessant high-pitched ee-ee calls. With the advent of spring, these flocks will be breaking up as birds make nests in hole

The Song Thrush is a familiar bird, brown above, with a white belly covered in black, drop-shaped spots, they are a smaller bird than the Mistle Thrush. Until we built all our houses and gardens everywhere, song thrushes were woodland birds, relying on their song to advertise their territory occupancy and health to neighbours and potential mates. In habitats that can be dark and visually obstructive, a good song makes sense. As their name suggests, song thrushes have a very d

When the sun is shining, this lichen catches the light and looks like it is shining too, thanks to its upper surface being a brilliant shade of yellow or orange. Most lichens are intolerant of high pollution levels, this beauty is an exception. This lichen is often associated with high levels of nitrogen and so can commonly be found close to farmland and livestock. It is also something of a globetrotter, being found throughout Britain and most of Europe, in North America, Afr

Together with Otley2030 we are hosting a webinar Wednesday 31 March, from 7.00pm to help everyone attract more wildlife to their gardens....

One of the first trees to blossom each year, the Blackthorn does so before it even has any leaves, and this is one of the ways to distinguish it from the not dissimilar Hawthorn. The early flowers are a boon for bees. At the other end of the year, the Blackthorn produces big blue-black sloes, whilst the Hawthorn has the smaller red berries. Sloes, of course, can be used in the production of gin – try some from Sloemotion, partners in our gin event and a business that have sus

Also known as the pussy willow, the male catkins of the goat willow look like a cat’s paws and are extremely soft to the touch. It is these catkins that are on show right now, one of the best places to catch sight of them in Otley is along the river but can be found growing in woodland, hedgerows and scrub, it especially likes damp open ground. Goat willows are extremely valuable to wildlife, their foliage is eaten by the caterpillars of a number of moths and is also the main

Another in our occasional series on the supposed “bad guys” of Nature, Feral Pigeons have an interesting lineage. Originally Rock Doves all lived on cliffs and mountains, but then thousands of years ago some of them were domesticated for food (and later sport and messaging) – Mesopotamian tablets and Egyptian hieroglyphics reference this. Subsequently, some escaped back to the wild, and their large numbers are testimony to their success at adapting to urban habitats, swapping

A lot of our resident birds are busy getting an early start and building their nests already. Perhaps the most visible because of the size of the bird and distinctiveness of the messy nest are crows, it helps that the trees are still bare, so catching site of a crow with a beak full of twigs patching up last years nest is fairly easy. A Carrion Crow's nest is usually built in the fork of a tree, but can be spotted on electricity pylons and other weird places. It is made by bo

Coppiced since mediaeval times, people have found all sorts of uses for this member of the birch family, including charcoal, clogs and gunpowder, and someone once told me that Venice is built on Alder. This makes sense in that these trees are often found close to water, as on the banks of the Wharfe, and rather than rotting when wet the timber actually gets stronger. Alder roots help prevent riverbank erosion, and also make an ideal spot for an otter holt. Their location can

Another early riser and brilliantly busy bumblebee (try saying that over and over as quick as you can), the tree bumble was first recorded in the UK as recent as 2001! They are such a part of our insect scene now, especially at this early point in the season it's hard to imagine being without them. Tree bumblebees are notorious for claiming bird nest boxes, they have even been known to evict blue tits from particularly desirable nest boxes in order to take them over. By River