TAKING the trail that leads from Coalsnaughton down to Gartmorn Dam, I was surprised to see lamb’s tails – or hazel catkins – out so early in the season.

Lamb’s-tails is such a wonderfully appropriate name for these hazel catkins that are now beginning to adorn our hedgerows and woodland edges.

More a bush than a tree, the hazel is a fundamental keystone of our countryside yet so often over-looked because for much of the year it is rather inconspicuous. But all this changes when their hanging lime-coloured catkins decorate the branches like baubles. It is as much a sign of the new season of life as frog spawn or early-emerging daffodils.

These dangly catkins are the male flowers, but look closer at the branches and the tiny bud-like red female flowers can be seen too. Pollinated by the wind, these will develop by autumn into small hazelnut clusters. However, productivity never seems to be great and I often find hazels in autumn that are completely nutless. The trees that do bear nuts are a magnet for agile wood mice and bank voles, the neatly chiselled shells lying below testament to their nocturnal foraging activities.

Alders are also beginning to produce catkins, although the male flowers lack the vibrancy of those found on hazel. The alder is our quintessential riverside tree and copes well in such poor and waterlogged conditions by having the capability to absorb nitrogen from the air, which in turn enhances the surrounding soil fertility. In effect, it is a pioneering tree that can colonise areas of bog and over time create the right conditions for the succession of other types of vegetation.

Alders also help to prevent erosion of riverbanks and, like the hazel, is really a tree that should be revered as one of our shining stars of the countryside. In winter, I particularly enjoy watching the feeding flocks of siskins and redpolls that dance and bound along the alder tops by the River Devon in search of their small seed cones. These little finches twitter in enjoyed harmony and no matter how bitter the weather, the alders are always productive and willingly give-up their precious bounty.