Teasel

Up the hill at the top end of Rodley reserve, there is a small area of woodland known as 'the manager's garden'. There's a hide up there and an array of bird feeders so it's a good place to observe the smaller birds - I saw chaffinches, goldfinches, a variety of members of the tit family, sparrows, robins, blackbirds, thrushes and even a woodpecker. There was also a little brown rat darting out and picking up the seeds that had dropped on the ground.  The floods did not reach this part of the reserve and there were plenty of the distinctive, spiky seedheads of teasel left. Goldfinches love them.