Scoping the trees at the back of the garden!

The large Common Ash on the other side of the footpath. Rather an interesting close-up view through the telescope, showing relatively little shoot extension I think (nothing to match it against though), terminal buds beginning to form a mid-brown in colour. Could a possible early slowdown be due to the continuing prevailing dry conditions? Last year's twigs don't seem to have grown much either, again most are very short really, with many small tight black auxillary buds along their sides.

The Woodpigeons do quite a lot of damage to the young leaves and one was still having a bit of a go this evening. The leaves are otherwise quite new and fresh.

Saw a weevil high on a terminal bud, fascinating to pick it out so far away.

Half a dozen leaflets scattered throughout the canopy were showing signs of the marginal leaf gall "bubbly" rolling with (normally) claret veining probably caused by the common jumping psyllid bug, Psyllopsis fraxini. There is another, apparently much rarer in the UK, psyllid, Psyllopsis discrepens, that causes exactly the same galling, and the two causative agents can only be distinguished by examining the larvae closely, but the balance of probability is obviously heavily in favour of Psyllopsis fraxini. Perhaps we should actually refer to Psyllopsis fraxini agg., an aggregate of three very similar species feeding on Fraxinus in Europe: Psyllopsis fraxini, P. discrepans and P. distinguenda. A good reference is http://www.dorsetnature.co.uk/pages-gall/g-39.html.

From Wikipedia, eggs are laid in the autumn on dormant buds and the nymphs hatch in the spring and feed on the leaves. The host plant reacts by producing extra cells and the affected areas becomes swollen and rolls downwards and encloses the wax covered nymphs. Each gall may contain two or three generations and by the end of summer contain all stages of the insect.

The hedgerow Hawthorns. A very few old fruits, one or two mummified. Some of the flowers were capped and failed to open, persisting until now. There are huge numbers of fruitlets forming.

Sycamore on the other side of the footpath. Plenty of aphids. Are there male flowers on the end of the inflorescence tassels?