This last week has been warm and sunny, which has encouraged ash trees to finally start bursting into leaf. The tree above at the edge of Lough Corrib in west Galway hasn’t quite started – most of the leaves haven’t begun to emerge from bud yet. It has also sustained a bit of damage – one of the main branches has hanging on by only a bit of bark. It’s likely that it got a clatter from a machine. The field looks like it had been subject to some clearing (there was a digger parked at the end of the field). However, all of the trees across the field – and there were quite a few of ash and whitethorn -, including a few string young saplings, had been left intact. As a result, when I took this picture (just after 7am), the dawn chrous was in full swing, with a differnt bird in each tree loudly claiming their territory. A wonderful sound.
