Spring is nearly here!

[pollygog]

The Elwy was fined down and running slower and clearer this morning, its now about two feet below the level of the Dipper pic above taken earlier in the week when it was swollen with snow melt. The clearer lower levels have tempted the female Goosander back to the pools by the viewing platform on The Common, she is now paired off with a very handsome mate again this morning, possibly the same male as last few years as he is much less approachable than female.
I managed a couple of snaps (SEE BELOW) -as they drifted rapidly past the viewing platform before flying off downriver, the wary male is to the right. I very definitely need to invest in a decent zoom lens, but unfortunately a decent 70-300mm will cost more than my new camera did, with 18-55mm lens.

The frogs continue to surprise me this year and are still laying spawn, I removed a further two pairs yesterday from my pond and filter and put them in wildlife pond.
I found a sad sight after an unfortunate visit from a Heron early on Wednesday morning, the remnants of its attack on the frogs in the wildlife pond were scattered about on the parapet, lumps of dried frogspawn and bits of disembowelled frog!
I now have a large piece of weldmesh and net over pond to protect them from further attacks.

[pollygog]

Goosander pair on Elwy 11th March 2017, this might be clearer picture in hindsight.

[pollygog]

This year is the longest period of frogspawn production ever!
I found more fairly fresh spawn yesterday in the Nexus, along with some strings of toad spawn, obviously laid on the main pond floor and pulled through to Nexus sieve, yet I have tadpoles swimming around in overflow pond and feeding from first frog spawn laid on 3rd February.

We where at a dog show for Highland breeds at Ingliston nr Edinburgh on Saturday and saw a surprisingly large entry of dogs for a one day show.
There were just under 200 Golden Retrievers entered in just one section of the gundog breeds alone, I've never seen so many dogs in one (very large) hall.
Crufts is spread out through separate halls!
I also never realised there were so many Scottish breeds of dog.
The bog standards, the ever popular West Highland White,(63 entered just in one class alone) Gordon Setters, the Cairn Terrier, (Dorothy's dog in the Wizard of Oz) and the Dandy Dinmont I'm familiar with as they're fairly common, but Skye Terriers, Deer Hounds and Smooth Coated Collies I'm not, really good to see them all though and presented at their smart best for the show by their proud owners. Almost a 600 mile round trip for us but we had a beautiful sunny weekend for it (19C recorded at Edinburgh on the Saturday) and we stayed two nights in Edinburgh so no mad rush there and back.
With all this sunshine over the last week or so its finally dried up the muddy paths around the Elwy at St Asaph.
The routine scraping of our walking boots on the fence by the stone bridge when we finish our walk with the dogs we thankfully dispensed with for the first time yesterday, no more mud, well for now!

[roselanekoi]

Spring is definitely here at last, the local jackdaws are busy giving the ponies a hair cut for material to line their nests with, the ponies don't seem to mind at all as the birds strip them of their winter coat.

Jackdaw.jpg (98.61 KiB) Viewed 14938 times

Also walking up Moel Famau this morning I could hear that the skylarks have returned, I even saw a rare black grouse flying past.

[pollygog]

You are so privileged to have skylarks and lapwings around you Colin, they are two of my favourite birds.
There is something evocatively cerebral about the exuberant trilling of a skylark particularly on a beautiful spring morning on the moors.
I've not seen or heard them anywhere around here locally, despite all the fields.
The only place I've seen and heard them and also Black Grouse is around Llyn Cyfynwy on Llandegla moor, the grouse have a leck up there, closely monitored by the RSPB this time of year.
There are also Snipe, Woodcock, Curlew and Grey Lag geese nesting up there and a pair of Crested Grebes on the lake.
We also don't have bearded jackdaws around here!

[pollygog]

APRIL
"The roofs are shining from the rain,
The sparrows twitter as they fly,
And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.
Yet the back yards are bare and brown
With only one unchanging tree--
I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me."
Sara Teasdale

Fishing at Llandegla on Monday with two angling pals on one of the best Spring days so far.
There was still a sharp nip in the early morning air with a stiff breeze blowing down from the Llantysilio Mountain direction so it had obviously passed over the frosty tops of the Berwyn's on route.
The cool breeze eased by mid morning as the sun grew in strength and brightness pushing the trout down into the deeper troughs of the lake.
The warm Spring sun felt really pleasant on our backs though as the sun moved higher in the sky, one of those memorable spring days when it was a pleasure to be alive in such a beautiful environment and in such good company, simply doing what we enjoy; fly fishing!
The fishing was sporadic at first with very few fish rising, just the odd tentative enquiry, barely a touch of a take between us for close on 3 hours despite many fly changes, so to ease our frustration, we stopped for lunch. We put the world to rights and caught up on our family news over a leisurely lunch. During lunch we noticed there was a good hatch of Chironimid midges and a few Stone fly and Caddis fly spinners floating around the margins. It went slightly cloudy and hazy for a short period around 2.30pm and I caught my first fish of the day, a tiny two ounce Rudd on a well chewed and tatty size ten Silver Butcher fly!
Surprising how it managed to get this fairly large fly in its mouth.
This tiny marvel was quickly followed by my best fish of the day, a 4lb 8oz Rainbow and a further three around the 2lb mark, all within an hour!
But that's fly fishing!

[pollygog]

The dawn chorus is at its best right now and the milder nights mean we can leave the bedroom window open so we get to hear it early; too early, like 4.45am, its still pretty much dark!
A pair of sparrows have moved back into the single nest box under the summer house porch eaves, for the third year running, curious to know if its same pair again?
The past week has also seen another old feathered friend return, the woodpigeon that have nested opposite our kitchen window in the Leylandii hedge, for the past few years, the cock bird has a distinctive unusually large white collar, almost round.
The frogspawn and toad spawn has all hatched and we are feeding the tadpoles on a regular basis now. The newts as usual are doing their very best to eat them all again, I think I need to move more newts on again this year, they breed too successfully here by all accounts!

Check this out for a well camouflaged fish!, I'm having the trout below for my dinner tonight, its a Tiger trout, from Chirk and very good eating too, tastes similar to a wild brownie from a mountain stream and they are also ferocious fighters like the wild brownies.
I've caught a strange variety of fish from Chirk over the years from the bog standard Rainbows to Tiger trout, American Brook trout, Cutthroat trout, Brown trout, Blue trout, Golden trout, the ubiquitous Rudd that turn up everywhere, and quite a few Perch.
You just don't know what you will connect with, my personal best Brownie from here just a few months ago for instance and a 7lb 6 ounce Rainbow last year.

[pollygog]

The newts have been busy this last few weeks building up their reserves ready for mating.
I spotted this cheeky female whopper near my pond that was eating mealworms put out on a Bonsai conifer for our tame Robin and the Wrens. I've snapped four different females up to now, this one looks to be full of eggs, or tadpoles!
It's only when you see the size of them you realise why the tadpoles are vanishing at such an alarming rate, this one is about 7 inches long and looks quite primal; and menacing!

[roselanekoi]

What a whopper, that's one thing I never see in my pond. Come to think of it I've not seen any common newts for a couple of years, plenty of tadpoles this year though.

One thing I did see a couple of mornings ago when out walking the dog was a pair of greylag geese on one of the fields. I often see a pair of Canada geese grazing on the fields but I had to go to the iBird UK app on the phone to identify the greylag geese.

[pollygog]

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

T.S. Elliot

Hi Colin, Nanerch is not far from you as the crow (or goose) flies and there are now at least a dozen Greylag geese breeding there in permanent residence, they have been breeding there undisturbed for at least the last ten years so it could well be some of their offspring you've spotted.
Along with several Canada geese there are a few pairs of tufted duck and Teal I've seen recently (whilst fly fishing) that also nest there.
Teal have got the unique and remarkable ability when disturbed to spring vertically from the water at speed and disappear fast, up through the leaf canopy over a wooded pond or lake. I've seen this at first hand several times and I'm very impressed every time.
Woodcock are pretty damn quick out of the starting blocks too but they disappear rapidly, zigzagging through the trees!

Had a busy time this past week or so, last Sunday we went on what is now an annual trip event to Dolgellau to meet up with my in-laws and also put flowers on my in-laws family graves in St Marys churchyard on the Marian.
On arrival our first priority was to walk the dogs part way down the Mawddach trail (the old disused railway track) that runs through to Fairbourne and Barmouth via the (in use) railway bridge across the Mawddach estuary. This is a stunning walk at this time of year as the huge variety and number of wild flowers in bloom along the river bank are pretty spectacular, bluebells everywhere, great clumps of white wild garlic along with valerian, lady's smock, primroses cowslips, cuckoo pint, tall hedge mustard, purple violets peeping out the grass, frothy blue forget-me-nots, just a riot of colour in places along the banks and despite the dull day, it lifted your spirits.
It rained, actually a cold drizzle, the whole time we walked, resulting in a vigorous towelling down for two little doggies.
Priority then was to visit St Marys graveyard across the back of the Marian then on and up through the town for our lunch meet.
It was only when we arrived home later that night we discovered our illustrious leader Teresa May was on holiday with her husband and had walked the Mawddach trail and had also attended a service at St Marys church Dolgellau the same day!
Oh well, she missed a golden opportunity to meet me, but, her sad loss!
Sometime during her visit to Dolgellau apparently she made the momentous decision to go for another General Election in June.
Now I know it was a miserable cold wet day but I didn't think it was that bad!

I found these two newts yesterday when I went to my filter to check it,
They had either climbed up, or, dropped down, a regular occurrence with amphibians, into a plastic pail I keep under my Nexus filter waste pipe ball valves. This is to catch the drips when I flush it out.
They are a Smooth Newt, the small one and another female Great Crested Newt, this is the 5th GCN female I've photographed, no wonder the tadpoles vanish at an alarming rate, although its not as big (about 5") as the last whopper I posted.
Second picture (top) is taken when I gently tipped them out by wild life pond, the smaller newt is barely visible behind,about to vanish into water.