A Year in the Valley

Three of our alder saplings have died, just at budding.  They are in different places in the watermeadow – one over the opposite side of the stream, one halfway down ‘Weasel Walk’ and another at the foot of the decking.  I checked out the symptoms of Alder dieback, which is mainly bleeding and red scars on the bark and none of them have that.  They were all tall and strong-looking compared to their peers – and in good health until their buds failed to open.  I’ve been checking them regularly hoping they will sprout leaves.  I spotted this little brown beetle on the one in Weasel Walk.  A Galerucella, like the black-margined loosestrife beetle, it is brown and amber with a slightly different shape and dark brown markings.  The best indicator of species is the host plant.  However, the brown willow beetle can be found in the damp grassland of alder carr as well as willow.  Here, it has both as mature willows overhang the path.