What amazing weather wev'e been blessed with of late, so warm! In the garden, slow worms have appeared in our compost bin and today I found three curled up together. One of these was noticably larger than the others. Here, at the end of the garden cleavers, cow parsley, nettles and that notorious weed ground elder are all shooting up, whilst in the border foxgloves, garlic mustard, poppies and ox-eye daisy are fresh with green foliage. Daisies sprinkle the lawn, and in the damp meadow around the pond, native fritillarias have aquired flower buds. What an exciting time of year! Action in the pond continues unabated with four pond scaters seen today. Pond snails are everywhere including some tiny ones no more than a millimetre or so in length; obviously babies hatched from last year's eggs. In the margins, purple loosestrife is beginning to sprout new shoots and the marsh marigold has flower buds. Elsewhere, bumble bees of all sizes are buzzing around including a lovely type called anthophora plumipes. They have very long tongues and are amazing hoverers.
Late in the evening, Suesie and I were standing in the garden gazing skywards as group after group of jackdaws swept above us, off to their evening roost. It was such a lovely sight to see that many of these were flying together as obvious pairs. Apparently, jackdaws mate for life.
Today's weather was gorgeous; really warm and sunny. In the pond the frog's spawn has turned into a mass of wriggling tadpoles, and those which hatched first are even beginning to venture around the edges of the pool. Ants and spiders busy themselves in the damp, grass margins. Two water boatmen made regular appearances today, though still no sign of pond scaters till mid afternoon when the first of the year was spotted. Pond snails were everywhere. Beneath the water's surface the clumps of oxygenating weed have really filled out, though we could still do with more, I think. Within the margins the yellow flag iris shoots are about five inches tall and the water mint has spread dramatically.
Within the meadow strip the primroses are a wonderful sight. I'm having such trouble getting a photo which does them justice though. The forget-me-nots are beginning to flower, and everything seems to be sending up new growth including our little willow saplings which have just begun to break into leaf. Also today, I sowed a tray of native foxglove seeds. Foxglove seed shouldn't be covered with soil so I just sprinkled the fine seed onto the compost's surface, watered with a fine, mist spray and left the tray outside under a piece of glass.
Due to persistant rain we weren't able to do much in the garden on Saturday. A brief lull early in the morning allowed me to nip out quick, whereupon I managed to plant a couple of bits of native germander speedwell around the pond and a buttercup in the meadow area. And joy upon joy I discovered some of the frog's spawn had hatched into tiny tadpoles! Sunday's weather was gorgeous. As I stood at the kitchen window at 9.15am, eating my breakfast, I had the briefest glimpse of a fox as it crossed the end of the garden and into our neighbours'. It had a very short tail; no more than a foot long. A short time later I was clearing some of the dead stalks and leaves from the pond edge disturbing a few very active looking dragonfly larvae. Some of these were tiny so I'm guessing they were damselfly babies. No pond scaters have appeared yet, though last week I saw lots on the dykes in the Cuckmere valley. As I worked, a chiff chaff; one of our summer migrants began singing nearby. Flies and a type of large bee were on the wing. Lastly, I was overjoyed to see the native betony seeds I sowed last autumn have germinated. Isn't this such a lovely time of year. Seeing and hearing all these signs of spring; it's like meeting old friends.
Over the last few days the frogs have continued to be busy in the pond and wev'e now got at least five seperate blobs of frog's spawn all in the same area. The frogs themselves have remained elusive, though a couple of water boatmen and those little water-skimming spiders have begun to make regular appearances.
Thanks to a couple of warm days of gorgeous sunshine lots of new growth is beginning to show around the garden. Cleavers, nettles, cow parsley and little honesty seedlings are all sending up new growth. In the crazy paving close to the house herb robert is abundant whilst amongst the meadow area the primroses are starting to bloom.
The birds have also been really busy of late. The blackcap has been singing his heart out for days now and he paid a brief visit to our newly dug veg patch for a while. Today we also had a handsome pair of magpies visit, drinking from the pond and chipping away at one of the nearby rotting logs. In the night sky Mars is clearly visable in the south, whilst Venus and Jupiter are a lovely sight close together in the south-west.
Spring is on it's way! What a wonderful time of year this is; you can just feel that sence of energy bubbling away just below the surface. Thankfully the spell of harsh weather we had in February wasn't too prolonged. We had lots of activity on the bird feeding station. As well as the robins, collared doves, bluetits, great tits, and the usual band of bullying jackdaws, we had a long-tailed tit brave the feeders at last, plus quite a few redwings; mainly in the tall tree a couple of gardens along. Blackbirds made good use of the abundant ivy berries. By the end of February thing had really begun to warm up and further afield lambs were being born, red admirals and bumble bees were on the wing and dog violets were in bloom. On the 25th of the month we heard one of the spring migrant birds; a blackcap singing nearby. Rummaging through one of our compost heaps I found over fifty hibonating snails! The final day of the month though brought a real treat. Frogs had begun to spawn in our pond! So exciting! As we watched the action a lone water boatman made an appearance too. Elsewhere in the garden centipedes, ants and ladybirds were also on the move. M.
Martin. and Suesie are not genious gardeners nor wildlife experts, our main hope is to encourage everyone, however small their plot is, to have a go. We can all play an important role in helping our native wildlife.