Went for a walk along the river this morning, a grey morning with occasional soft rain, but lightened by the yellow hazel catkins. A couple of months ago, I only noticed one hazel tree right beside the path, but now all the others were easy to see.
They were in such numbers that I wondered whether the wood had been hazel coppice at some point in the past. I must take a more leisurely stroll through the wood some time and see if I can find any saplings.
Hi Pat,
Good luck finding hazel seedlings in the wood! Nearly 7 years of spending most of my time in woods and I have not found one yet 🙁
The squirrels are very good at their nut-finding (that’s why Willy Wonka employs them, after all) so even the ones I manage to collect in the Autumn are rarely viable and I need to guard them carefully as the squirrels in our garden will pull them up by the shoots to get what’s left of the nut.
Last year was terrible for most fruit and nuts which was probably largely down to the weather, but the previous year was so good I suspect a lot of trees needed a rest. It was like driving through a bowl of rice crispies getting into some woods. Fingers crossed for a good crop this year!
Hi Iain,
I’m fascinated by Rackham’s comment “Grey squirrels have taken away hazel’s means of reproduction”, and I’m trying to find out whether he was exaggerating. Your comment indicates that maybe he is not.
Next time I’m in an area where there are hazels but no grey squirrels, I shall be interested to see if there are any young hazels to be found.
Pat