Frogs and birdlife.

The pond is now a mass of tadpoles, but a few weeks ago...

There were a lot of frogs and spawn!

Angus counted 80 before losing count while I took this photo through the house windows. As soon as one goes outside to look, the frogs disappear under the water!

       

We saw the otter visiting several times for a feast. The heron has been here feasting every day too.

The above photos, February 20th.

Resident moorhen on the big pond.

Zoe's photo of a juvenile cormorant having a bathe in the big pond November 14th. The cormorant was here again today.
The white Egret also visited the water this winter.

A flock of gold finches on the teasels, December 10th.
When teasels are in flower they are great for the bees too.

 

Frequenting the bird feeder along with all the common small birds...

 .... a male woodpecker. This photo January 1st. We continued to see woodpeckers on the feeder throughout January and February.

October wildlife.

 

 Bumble bee on Heptacodium miconioides.

Red admiral butterfly on Buddleja × weyeriana.

Chaffinch eating Phlomis russeliana seeds.


Grey wagtail on the small pond. 

Heron

Perched on top of the Alder yesterday there was a Grey Heron set against a grey sky.

As soon as I took the first photo it flew off!

Grey Heron, blackbird

April 11th

The Heron has been visiting almost every day for the last number of weeks to feast on the tadpoles.
There are so many birds in the garden right now, blackbirds, tits, finches, dunocks, robin, moorhen, little greeb, mallard..... A couple of weeks ago birds could be seen collecting nesting materials.

 The blackbird in the vegetable garden today.
This morning  she was perched outside the window with a worm packed beak. The blackbirds are nesting in the woodshed again.

February sky

 February had over 200mm (almost 8") of rain. While December had 142mm (5.5") and January 180mm (over 7"). That is more than 500mm (more than 20inches) this winter!
It was also a very windy month with a gust of 63 miles an hour and on 20 days there was at least 1 gale gust (39 mph). Temperatures were average.

February 25th

Good weather for ducks!

 

The ponds are full to the brim.
 Although the bees found many sunny intervals, a lot of February looked like this!  

Late January garden 2014

I found another little toadstool? (Anyone know what it is?) at an earlier stage of development than in my previous post.
 I think it is enchanting.

  I have an answer.... It is a Geastrum.  Many kinds are commonly known as earth stars.

Their were 3 Robins in the vegetable garden this morning.

 This one is perched on last years bean pole.
 

The Rhubarb is up. This is Victoria in a sheltered shady spot.

After a few weeks on the windowsill the early potatoes have grown their eyes /chitted.

I planted the first ones today in the small tunnel.
The bed is prepared with a mound of old dung, a good sprinkling of ash from the wood-fired range and topped with the shredded asparagus stalks.

The vegetable garden in January.

Kale.

Turnips will need to be picked soon before spring growth starts,

The potting bench in the small tunnel, the season begins.

December garden

A quiet month in the garden.

A late picking of straw flowers for drying.

Outside the entrance of the small tunnel.

Tivon planting bulbs.

 A small crop of kiwis this year.

The kiwi in flower in July,

------------------------------
 

(Kale in the background).
 Alfie was playing with a little toy tractor while I was digging out the odd dandelion, after a couple of minutes my fork seemed more interesting than his tractor and he spent some time digging with it until....

Having no fork, I went to get my trowel to transplant more poached egg plant under the kale, soon enough Alfie thought he would dig with the trowel instead.

Finding treasure?

Still alpine strawberries in the big tunnel....

.... for Alfie to find....

... and to eat.


The Robin follows us about.

View November garden

Bird life.

 

 3 white Egrets visited the pond on 12 September. 

 -------------------------------------------- 

The following photos are of bird visitors over the last few years.

Great Spotted Woodpecker. First seen in the garden in September 2005.

Cormorant.

Pair of Cormorants.

Goldfinchs on the feeder in February.

 Mostly Great Tits but also 2 Coal Tits in this photo taken in February.

We often hear the Buzzard flying high overhead.

There were a lot of Mallard on the pond this winter.

Bullfinch in January.

Long- eared Owl on the bird table. More commonly heard than seen. They were nesting not far from here as Angus could hear the young calling earlier in the year.