Spring is nearly here!

[pollygog]

The early dawn chorus is gathering momentum this past week as more and more different bird singers join in for a most enjoyable ensemble.
Blackbirds are singing just about daily now, a Song Thrush having a quick burst or two in the woods behind us and Sunday morning a diminutive Wren rendering brief snatches of his powerful passionate song from the top of our garden fence.
It's amazingly loud for such a tiny bundle of energy.
Spink the Chaffinch singing all this weekend and joined by a Dunnock and Robin in the large Witchhazel bush in full flower on bare branches next to my pond, that's a pretty sight to gladden your heart.
Enjoying the cosy protected spot below the bush the first purple crocus of the year are peeping out.
Next to them is a large clump of daffodils bending their yellow bud tips down ready to flower in a couple of days.
It's all coming together!

[roselanekoi]

I'll have to add another name to the small list of visitors to my bird table.

A couple of blue tits have become regular visitors and, after a bit of trial and error, I've managed to set the camera up and trigger it remotely from my bedroom window. This is one of the more successful images.

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Colin

[pollygog]

Considering the speed with which the little blighters operate that is an excellent shot Colin, keep up the good work. We have some spare bird feeders; if you want them just let me know, I can bring them to next Club meet in March.
With setting up a camera you will find that there is actually a surprisingly varied procession of visiters to your bird table through the course of a day and not all feathered.

Down at the river in St Asaph early this morning we were standing on the path at the back of the library listening to the bird song when a small bird suddenly burst into song quite nearby in a large bush, a cock Linnet! not heard or seen one around there before so thats a first for me at least.
Must have been the intense competition from the Chaffinches twittering away in the trees along the river on The Roe got him going.
Our dogs got very agitated smelling something very interesting around the tangled hawser like roots of an Alder jutting out into the Elwy and when I very gingerly peeked around the trunk into the tangle of roots I saw the cause of their excitement; a partly eaten fish possibly a Brown Trout.
A sure sign an Otter had been around there recently and almost certainly the fresh scent of it had got the dogs excited.
Theres still no signs of the Dippers back on the river yet despite the level dropping a good two feet from last weekend but the Cherry Plum tree on the Roe by the childrens play area is just starting into white blossom, in a couple of weeks time it will be a delightful frothy white mass like a Blackthorn in bloom and the added bonus of lots of small sweet red plums to eat in early August.

[pollygog]

Greeted with a different dawn chorus yesterday as I walked out into our back garden, the 'Frog Chorus'.
They were at it like knives in the small overflow pond next to my Koi pond splashing and croaking at 8.00am and with two lots of spawn laid by lunchtime things are looking good.
Last Sunday I also managed to flush two frogs thirty five feet down the one and a half inch flexible waste pipe from my Nexus into the garden.
I went to check the exit flow and found them crawling around on the grass near the end of the pipe none the worse for their forced eviction, who knows? it could have been them laid the spawn yesterday.
Down at the river Elwy in St Asaph this morning walking our dogs I saw the male Merganser I saw on Tuesday morning in the same stretch between the new cricket pavilion and the A55 road bridge.
I think it fishes there recently because of height of river water as its much wider and shallower in this stretch, it was walking through the shallows rooting in the stones for Bullhead or Caddis I would guess. It's obviously used to people and dogs now as it's been on this public access piece of river for three years to my knowledge so it's unfazed by us walking close to it with three dogs, yes, three dogs!
Just lately we have walked a neighbours dog that is also a West Highland White and who is also unfortunately called Hamish so confusion reigns at times!
His owner is in hospital long term so it looks like long term walkies for Hamish mk 2
When I walked under the stone road bridge at St Asaph I disturbed a Dipper that flew away downstream. It had popped out onto a tiny sand bar formed under the bridge from recent floods, thats the first Dipper I've seen in months but the river has been in spate almost continuously since October, it's actually fined down and cleared from this Tuesday but still high and fast though.There are now hundreds of clumps of Ransomes or wild garlic pushing up between the Snowdrops by the stone roadbridge near the river information board and wooden viewing platform on The Roe
Another first this year, a large Magnolia tree with deep pink flowers opening out into flower in a neighbours garden as I drove past this morning, such a lovely sight in the late morning sunshine.

[roselanekoi]

You're not the only one with frogspawn, this started appearing in my wildlife pond on Saturday 28th Feb.

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Colin

[pollygog]

That's a good start to the new season Colin, it means things are now seriously on the move Spring-wise in both of our ponds.
Things are stop/start here as the frogs have gone quiet again after ten lots of spawn laid in both of my ponds over the last two weeks, but then they laid spawn sporadically over a month or so last year so nothing new there.
One thing different so far this year is the newts have not put in an appearance yet; too cold still I think.
They were busy eating the frogspawn this time last year so possibly some early respite for the poor beleaguered tadpoles this Spring.
There's also been a pair of woodpidgeon very busy this week building a nest in the Leylandii hedge opposite our kitchen window again. Standing waiting for the kettle to boil in the morning for our first brew we can watch them coming and going with thin twigs and pieces of foliage, about 15 feet away and they are just not fazed by us.
I presume it's the same pair that nested there last year but they must have perfected the nest building technique by now as they haven't scattered twigs about everywhere as they did last year despite the gale force winds of the last week.
If they keep bringing this amount of nest material every day to the nest site they should have a nest the size of a small shed by April!
The upside of having a large mixed woodland at the bottom of our garden is the varied wildlife visiters but occasionally the downside is as last Friday night with the noise from the trees particularly the Douglas Firs in a storm.
Despite having modern double glazing the incredibly loud roaring and crashing sounds from the trees woke us up at 4.00am and I went to the conservatory door to open it and listen to the trees complaining at their harsh treatment from Mother Nature.
It's scary; primal but fascinating!
It gives you a feeling of mortal insignificance; a helpless vulnerability in the face of such omnipotent savage fury from nature.
Such is the nature of the beast!
But; the following morning the sun shine through your blinds wakes you to a calmer scene after the storm; just like in Walt Disney's 'Fantasia'
No Zephyr's or Centaurs trotting out the woods yet I have to report though, along with the Unicorns I think the locals ate them all years ago!

[roselanekoi]

Well Spring's officially here once again. The sun's eclipse was a bit of a let down yesterday with the sky clouding over just as it was starting.

I see the frogspawn in my little pond is close to hatching and the lapwings are back in the fields down the lane, always a welcome sight.

I spotted this bird a few days ago anyone any idea what it is.

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Colin

[pollygog]

Hi Colin
I took a very good photo of the eclipse on Friday morning around 9.30 am as I was waiting to climb up steps to board plane bound for Rome at Manchester airport.
My nephew who was with us has posted it on Facebook, it was just one of those rare fleeting moments of actually being in the right place at the right time.
Your picture of the mystery bird; looks too big for a budgie! was it spotted on your bird table? as the last time I saw one of those birds it had its head inside a dead Wildebeest disembowelling it!
On the subject of disembowelling we saw Wales knock the tripe's out of Italy in Rome on Saturday, particularly so in the second half, now why couldn't they have played that way in the previous match?
One thing about Rome to the casual observer/visitor is the Romans apathetic attitude to their beautiful city!
The city centre has actually got worse since I was last there.
It now must have the title for the dirtiest most rubbish strewn city in the EU with the worst parking imaginable and also the unenviable record for the worst pavements, you just daren't look up!
Most of the pavements are in a dangerous and disgusting state of repair, I feel sorry for the disabled as you could not travel far in a wheelchair up most pavements and they actually park their tiny Smart Cars and scooters across and on pedestrian crossings and road junctions even right across the corner.
The irresponsible parking has to be seen to be believed, also, they park so close together that they must push their car into the gap, or,they climb out through their sunroof

[pollygog]

Sorry for long delay in posting but I must have picked a bug or two up from return flight to Manchester from Rome. Despite having the flu jab last October I almost certainly picked up a severe dose of mutated flu from the planes air circulation system. The dose of flu was followed by a chest infection so I have just finished a course of antibiotics yesterday.
Thank goodness we now have nice weather at last as the eternal coughing has driven me barmy lately but hopefully I'm now on the mend and can catch up with ponds and springs events.

Phil

[roselanekoi]

Hi Phil, glad to hear you're on the mend and getting over your bout of Italian flu, a sort of Italian 'Montezuma's Revenge' for the hammering Wales gave Italy. There's certainly been some nice weather this week, very unusual for school holidays.

Spring is truly here now with the Jackdaws busy plucking hair from the ponies backs to line their nests. The ponies don't mind at all and seem to rather enjoy the experience.

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I'm told we can also look forward to a warm summer, my sister-in-law says her little Shetland cross Welsh pony is shedding its winter coat early this year, a sure sign we're in for a warm summer,

Regards,

Colin