New beginnings

In the bleak, dark days at the start of the year, life stirs

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With all the festivities over January can feel like the bleakest month of the year, but really it is a time of great quickening – for those with eyes to see. Suffolk’s woods and spinneys may seem leafless (and lifeless), but look closer and you’ll see that many trees are quietly coming into bud, making this time of year perfect for brushing up on your identification skills.

Ash buds are black, and appear at the end of twigs that often swoop down and then up at the tips, as though beckoning. Those of the horse chestnut are large, brown and slightly sticky. Often first into leaf, they can be quite far along in a mild January. Last year, horse chestnut bud-burst was recorded as early as February 8 here in East Anglia. Beech buds are slim, golden and pointed, appearing on alternate sides of the twigs, while the field maples, which are such an important hedgerow species in this part of the country, are reddish, set in pairs along russet twigs.