Author Topic: Signs of Spring  (Read 208636 times)

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #550 on: 07 April, 2013, 12:20:28 pm »
No ducklings in the park yet, nor any sign of moorhens' nests. I haven't heard a chiffchaff either.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #551 on: 07 April, 2013, 12:29:19 pm »
We saw a swan sitting on a nest yesterday. It's coming, I tell you.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #552 on: 07 April, 2013, 12:44:54 pm »
The first duckings last year were in the first week of March. The eggs have a 4-week incubation period so it was amazing that the mother managed through the awful cold in the first week of February. All the ducklings died, of course. I expect to hear chiff-chaffs in March. I don't think they are counted as summer visitors any more (I always regarded them as such when I was young) but their song is very seasonal. I imagine that quite a few of them do migrate, and the wind has just been against them for an entire month.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

jogler

  • mojo operandi
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #553 on: 07 April, 2013, 02:06:25 pm »
I'm spending time doing odds&sods in the garden.I've even been to a garden centre this morning :hand:

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #554 on: 07 April, 2013, 04:58:34 pm »
Ducklings in the village. I'll get a photo tomorrow on my way past.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #555 on: 07 April, 2013, 06:10:41 pm »
Just heard an ice cream van...

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #556 on: 07 April, 2013, 06:31:53 pm »
Just heard an ice cream van...

Did all the students come piling out of their houses and skip and shriek up the road after it?

(Not quite sure why I pictured that - but I did.)
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #557 on: 07 April, 2013, 06:43:02 pm »
Just heard an ice cream van...

Did all the students come piling out of their houses and skip and shriek up the road after it?

No, they've all gone home for Easter.  We have parking spaces and everything.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #558 on: 07 April, 2013, 07:48:12 pm »
Just heard an ice cream van...
Our local one came round yesterday and stopped just down the road and today he actually stopped outside the house. I think he's looking for me  :(. I hope he doesn't go bust from my lack of custom before June :o.
Quote from: Kim
^ This woman knows what she's talking about.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #559 on: 07 April, 2013, 08:29:31 pm »
Ducklings in the village.
Why did I read that as duckings, & have a sudden vision of revived ancient practices?

I heard a skylark, near Ibworth, a little west of Basingstoke.

Yesterday I was gardening with my shirt off, & my back changed from deathly white to slightly pink. Today, I slapped sun cream on my face before going out on a ride, but my nose still changed colour.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #560 on: 08 April, 2013, 12:25:02 pm »
A wpod pigeon building a nest in the holly tree in the garden and the sound of lambs from the next field but one to our house. It must finally be spring now.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #561 on: 08 April, 2013, 03:06:12 pm »
It must have been 11 or 12 years ago that my daughter and I did a few day's chess teaching at a school in Chelmsford. I remember well it being 8th April (my niece's birthday) and the temperature reached 80°F.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #562 on: 08 April, 2013, 04:17:08 pm »
My pea plants have suddenly started looking like pea plants!
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #563 on: 08 April, 2013, 06:02:59 pm »
There appears to be an outbreak of Bromptons on the pav^H^H^Hstreets of Birmingham.  A couple of years ago they were a rare sight, even in summer.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #564 on: 09 April, 2013, 06:47:25 pm »
A mosquito. In my house.  :-\
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #565 on: 12 April, 2013, 07:06:50 pm »
I have heard some blackbirds singing lately. Still no chiffchaffs though. Nor ducklings.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #566 on: 14 April, 2013, 01:55:41 pm »
Chiffchaffs and a swallow.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #567 on: 14 April, 2013, 09:10:06 pm »
the leafs on my apple tree are coming out  :)
the slower you go the more you see

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #568 on: 14 April, 2013, 09:28:07 pm »
A bumblebee.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #569 on: 14 April, 2013, 11:00:38 pm »
oh and 2 brimstone butterfly's near henley this afternoon  :)
the slower you go the more you see

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #570 on: 15 April, 2013, 10:39:18 am »
A bumble bee at my window (Reading) this morning, & a brimstone butterfly yesterday, near Aldermaston. I saw a comma last week, on the allotment.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #571 on: 15 April, 2013, 11:27:41 am »
Big Clean in anticipation of being able to use the lounge again.
(Includes laundry in parallel but don't worry: I'm not planning on putting stuff out to dry on the line, so the Birmingham area shouldn't be subject to rain like yesterday.)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #572 on: 15 April, 2013, 12:49:03 pm »
I didn't need to go to the Launderette to use the dryer yesterday.

That's spring enough for me.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #573 on: 15 April, 2013, 12:51:18 pm »
Several hundred nesting black-headed gulls at the lagoon on Two Tree Island.

No avocets.

A few whitethroats.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #574 on: 15 April, 2013, 01:25:06 pm »
A magpie is trying to build a nest near work.  I'm guessing that it's its first year as it is not very good at it.  Keeps flying into the tree with twig, drops the twig into place which then promptly falls to the ground.  Magpies ignores the now large quantity of twigs under the tree and flies off, returning with a new twig.  Repeat.

Number of twigs in place so far - nil.
Number of twigs on the ground under the tree - loads.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.