The water birds of County Hall

Cormorants at dawn on the former Bute East Dock in Cardiff

I now find myself working as a temporary admin officer for Cardiff Council in the Highways department at County Hall. I have been there a week and love it. I am acting as maternity cover for someone, so I hope it will last for a while.

County Hall is in Cardiff Bay and not far from the main attractions of Mermaid Quay, so I will share my images of that area on another occasion. But what I have discovered in my first week is that many water birds nest on a long rectangular lake alongside the council HQ. It used to be the East Bute Dock when Cardiff was the main port for the export of South Wales coal.

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All that remains of my fallen ash

A cross-section of my fallen ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) – colour enhanced in Photoshop

Well then, let’s get this over with. The tree men have come and gone and the garden is now safe again after my biggest ash tree was blown down by Storm Aileen.

Here are some pictures taken for posterity…

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2017 tree following 10: Signs of stress

Browning leaves at the top of one of the 100 elms (Ulmus ‘New Horizon’

It’s November – the days are getting shorter and the shops have already started playing Christmas songs (it must be terrible to work there).

We have had out first frost here in Cardiff, although there is still plenty of rain, too.

The 100 disease-resistant elms, Ulmus ‘New Horizon’, in Cardiff’s Pontcanna Fields still seem green from a distance, but up close the leaves are looking rather poorly.

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Tree following link box for November 2017

Leaves of a tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) in Cardiff’s Bute Park this week

The tree-following link box has now closed for another month. To explore everyone’s updates, please go straight to the bottom of this post.

Why don’t you join us and follow a tree, too? You can start at any time and you don’t have to contribute every month if that’s too much of a commitment for you.

There is a nip in the air and plenty of autumn colour here in Cardiff, but I don’t think it’s a classic year, as there has been too much wind and rain. Every tree finds its own pace. Some are still mostly green, some are already bare.

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Exploring a fallen giant…

The fallen ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) in my garden

I mentioned in the October tree-following link-box blog that the biggest ash tree in our garden had been felled by Storm Aileen on the night of September 12-13. After the tree surgeon came to inspect the damage I went to have a closer look at the fallen giant and spent half an hour “communing” with it and taking pictures.

It felt like I was stroking a beached whale as it died.

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