Signs of Spring in my little patch ( open thread)

Cobra

Cobra

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So far, this weekend, apart from the bulbs showing and the saxifrage budding.
A Robin singing his heart out trying to attract a mate.

Last night in all that rain, a frog, singing his heart out trying to attract a mate.
I've several frogs, sleeping in my pond, I guess he was getting a head start, before the others wake up.
 
Daff's, Snowdrops, Crocus', Iris and winter Aconites all in full flower.

Acer's and Apple trees have opened their buds.

Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Bluetits are pairing, the Robins and Blackbirds are nest building.

Not my patch as such, but local Hares are out now the shoots are over and their already boxing.
 
Daffs poking through, Crocus budding, almost in full flower. The grass is definately growing :oops: :$, slowly but growing. Weeds in between my slabs and monoblock starting to show. :bat:

It just feels spring like too.

A few flying insects about, I've not really taken much notice of what they are but they're about.
 
About a week ago I discovered a peregrine nest with parents feeding chicks. Went back on Saturday and they had already fledged. While driving around my mole trapping clients today I saw white cherry blossom, anenomes and the ultimate confirmation that spring has sprung; a little white van towing a trailer loaded with a rotivator!
 
Able to have the windows ajar 24hrs just now (a sign of spring in itself) to air the house but it also allows the birdsong in. The House Sparrows are currently chirping in a small willow that we have in the front garden, not a sound I've heard since last summer.

The morning chorus is also picking up in the mornings, especially Robins and Song Thrushes.

I heard frogs last night, very faint. I checked the pond this morning but no sign of frog activity.
 
Our frogs have spawned in the garden pond and allotment pond
Was especially pleased that they had spawned in allotment pond as I only dug it last summer
 
No spawn as yet, but they are still calling here.
TBH I don't tend to get spawn until late March.
And that is usually followed by a late frost, which turns it to mush :(
 
Clouts may be cast - May is out...
 
Nod said:
Clouts may be cast - May is out...
Click to expand...
Probably wild plum variant at this time of year.
Often mistaken for Blackthorn (Sloes) which won't be out yet except perhaps in earliest areas..
'May' is an alternative name for hawthorn which is starting to leaf but won't flower until well into April at earliest though sometimes a few plants in hedge are confused especially if it's recently planted one.
 
There was a gekko sunning itself on a south facing wall yesterday. The temperature was only 11C, but it felt warmer out of the wind.
 
4wd said:
Probably wild plum variant at this time of year.
Often mistaken for Blackthorn (Sloes) which won't be out yet except perhaps in earliest areas..
'May' is an alternative name for hawthorn which is starting to leaf but won't flower until well into April at earliest though sometimes a few plants in hedge are confused especially if it's recently planted one.
Click to expand...

The wild plums started a couple of weeks ago. Not all the May is out yet but all in bud, about to burst.
 
Heard a song thrush singing this morning and the toad spawn in the garden pond has been joined by two clumps of frog spawn.

Dave
 
Clive K said:
About a week ago I discovered a peregrine nest with parents feeding chicks. Went back on Saturday and they had already fledged. While driving around my mole trapping clients today I saw white cherry blossom, anenomes and the ultimate confirmation that spring has sprung; a little white van towing a trailer loaded with a rotivator!
Click to expand...


Seems a bit unusual (the peregrine feeding chicks, that is......)
 
jerry12953 said:
Seems a bit unusual (the peregrine feeding chicks, that is......)
Click to expand...
That's what I thought too. Peregrine breeding season, tends to be late feb through march. (ignoring any second clutching)
and then about a 35 days incubation period
 
Cobra said:
That's what I thought too. Peregrine breeding season, tends to be late feb through march. (ignoring any second clutching)
and then about a 35 days incubation period
Click to expand...


In the wild eggs are normally laid the first week in April (ish). I'll take your word on the incubation period although some say less than 35 days.
 
jerry12953 said:
In the wild eggs are normally laid the first week in April (ish).
Click to expand...
Eggs are laid at 3-4 days apart, incubation doesn't start until the 4th egg is laid
 
jerry12953 said:
Seems a bit unusual (the peregrine feeding chicks, that is......)
Click to expand...
I live in sw France, but I was a bit surprised myself.

In Feb I had spotted a pair at an old granite quarry. I went back a few weeks later and the male flew into a hole in the rocks and there was a loud commotion. He came out and perched on a tree outside the hole and a short time later the female flew in and the commotion resumed. Both birds flew off and the female returned a minute or so later and went back in the hole. When we went back there was no sign of them at all.

Checking back a few years we saw the same sort of thing at the end of April in the Dordogne valley. I am hoping that they have a second brood.
 
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I meant to upload this a few days ago. Black-headed gulls heads usually change colour in late March. These already had their full colour on the 2nd. Seen floating on the Thames by the South Bank.
 

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Cobra said:
Eggs are laid at 3-4 days apart, incubation doesn't start until the 4th egg is laid
Click to expand...


I take it that you've read Derek Ratcliffe's classic monograph on the peregrine? According to my very well thumbed copy, the figures for wild birds are as follows -

Clutch completion 6 days after the first egg is laid; 30 more days for incubation; 42 more days for fledging.

Things may be different for captive birds but I have experience of that. If you would like to see a copy of my paper on the breeding peregrines and gyr falcons of an area of west Greenland just let me know. It was published in the Journal "Raptor Research" in the mid-1980's.

Clive K said:
I live in sw France, but I was a bit surprised myself.

In Feb I had spotted a pair at an old granite quarry. I went back a few weeks later and the male flew into a hole in the rocks and there was a loud commotion. He came out and perched on a tree outside the hole and a short time later the female flew in and the commotion resumed. Both birds flew off and the female returned a minute or so later and went back in the hole. When we went back there was no sign of them at all.

Checking back a few years we saw the same sort of thing at the end of April in the Dordogne valley. I am hoping that they have a second brood.
Click to expand...


Again according to Derek Ratcliffe, the only known instances of second clutches being laid followed the theft of the first clutch. It is possible what you saw was the pair of birds prospecting for a nest site or some other pre-laying behaviour.
 
The crocus are wilting now but we have a few tulips through. Daffodils on the way into our village are in full bloom, our garden ones are standing tall with buds but not opened yet.
 
Gav. said:
Get the mint sauce ready...;)

Lambs are popping up out here :love:
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Many years ago, I worked on a farm and lambing started just before commercialmas. The farm supplied the local butcher who did everything from killing to delivering - particularly nasty bullocks always tasted better!
 
jerry12953 said:
I take it that you've read Derek Ratcliffe's classic monograph on the peregrine?
Click to expand...
I've never heard of him.
I'm talking about real life practical experiences.




Just a heads up, as you seem to take great delight in following me around, dissecting and trying to contradict my posts,
to the nth degree,
I'll not be feeding you any further (y)
 
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Cobra said:
I've never heard of him.
I'm talking about real life practical experiences.




Just a heads up, as you seem to take great delight in following me around, dissecting and trying to contradict my posts,
to the nth degree,
I'll not be feeding you any further (y)
Click to expand...


If people insist on posting nonsense they must expect other people to correct them.
 
jerry12953 said:
If people insist on posting nonsense they must expect other people to correct them.
Click to expand...
Yes I try to do it with you, but as above I've given up.
 
jerry12953 said:
This may be a bit of a niche argument but if you have never heard of Derek Ratcliffe........
Click to expand...
If we are playing one upmanship Have you ever heard of Brad Mitchell? Dave Noble, Phillip Glazier (rip) ( Jemima Parry-Jones's Dad)
Or the two people that initiated the return of the red kites?
No? I know (knew) them all.
 
jerry12953 said:
I take it that you've read Derek Ratcliffe's classic monograph on the peregrine? According to my very well thumbed copy, the figures for wild birds are as follows -

Clutch completion 6 days after the first egg is laid; 30 more days for incubation; 42 more days for fledging.

Things may be different for captive birds but I have experience of that. If you would like to see a copy of my paper on the breeding peregrines and gyr falcons of an area of west Greenland just let me know. It was published in the Journal "Raptor Research" in the mid-1980's.




Again according to Derek Ratcliffe, the only known instances of second clutches being laid followed the theft of the first clutch. It is possible what you saw was the pair of birds prospecting for a nest site or some other pre-laying behaviour.
Click to expand...
I've never heard of Derek Ratcliffe either. But I know what I saw. The birds were prospecting for a nest site when I first saw them. The second time it was obvious from their behaviour and the noise coming from the nest site that both were feeding young. I cannot discount that the possibilities of the chicks dieing or being taken by man or predators because the nest site is not monitored. I know that the ones we saw feeding in the Dordogne were in April because it is written in the book we have in our motorhome.

I was told by an eminant 'twitcher' that I was talking nonsense when I mentioned that hobbys were over wintering on our shoot in Sth Yorkshire. He had to eat his words when I took him to where they predatored on song birds attracted to pheasant feeders. I was told that nuthatches couldn't be commuting in March because they don't lay until April. A couple of minutes footage of our bird table showed that they were. Similarly no one believed me when I said that there was a gyrfalcon on our shoot. But three weeks or so later when a card carrying 'twitcher' saw it we were inundated with people wanting to see it.

This was seen on our window box in Sth Yorkshire

Hummingbird Hawkmoth_resize_8.jpg

I don't live in books. I see things as they occur in nature, and nature doesn't live in books either.
 
Cobra said:
If we are playing one upmanship Have you ever heard of Brad Mitchell? Dave Noble, Phillip Glazier (rip) ( Jemima Parry-Jones's Dad)
Or the two people that initiated the return of the red kites?
No? I know (knew) them all.
Click to expand...


I don't live in the world of falconry or captive birds. This is nothing to do with one-upmanship - I didn't know Derek Ratcliffe but he was the UK's acknowledged expert on peregrines, and wrote the classic monograph on the species. If you are so keen on peregrines I'm very surprised you haven't read it. Personally I have spent many /weeks/months monitoring peregrines in the wild in Greenland, Wales, Scotland and England and as mentioned above had a paper published on them in a reputable journal. I also personally knew several of the people who studied red kites in Wales as they were beginning to return from close to extinction. They were eminent ornithologists and didn't come a falconry background.

Clive K said:
I've never heard of Derek Ratcliffe either. But I know what I saw. The birds were prospecting for a nest site when I first saw them. The second time it was obvious from their behaviour and the noise coming from the nest site that both were feeding young. I cannot discount that the possibilities of the chicks dieing or being taken by man or predators because the nest site is not monitored. I know that the ones we saw feeding in the Dordogne were in April because it is written in the book we have in our motorhome.

I was told by an eminant 'twitcher' that I was talking nonsense when I mentioned that hobbys were over wintering on our shoot in Sth Yorkshire. He had to eat his words when I took him to where they predatored on song birds attracted to pheasant feeders. I was told that nuthatches couldn't be commuting in March because they don't lay until April. A couple of minutes footage of our bird table showed that they were. Similarly no one believed me when I said that there was a gyrfalcon on our shoot. But three weeks or so later when a card carrying 'twitcher' saw it we were inundated with people wanting to see it.

This was seen on our window box in Sth Yorkshire

View attachment 416947

I don't live in books. I see things as they occur in nature, and nature doesn't live in books either.
Click to expand...


That's a hummingbird hawk moth - relatively common in the UK. As for your other supposed sightings I'll take those with a large pinch of salt.
 
jerry12953 said:
I don't live in the world of falconry or captive birds. This is nothing to do with one-upmanship - I didn't know Derek Ratcliffe but he was the UK's acknowledged expert on peregrines, and wrote the classic monograph on the species. If you are so keen on peregrines I'm very surprised you haven't read it. Personally I have spent many /weeks/months monitoring peregrines in the wild in Greenland, Wales, Scotland and England and as mentioned above had a paper published on them in a reputable journal. I also personally knew several of the people who studied red kites in Wales as they were beginning to return from close to extinction. They were eminent ornithologists and didn't come a falconry background.




That's a hummingbird hawk moth - relatively common in the UK. As for your other supposed sightings I'll take those with a large pinch of salt.
Click to expand...
The hawkmoth was then (and maybe still is) only common to the very south of England. As for your last sentence; that just shows the depth of your bigotry and ignorance. Perhaps you should write a book?

Don't bother replying. You are on the ignore list. Empty vessels and all that.
 
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