Author Topic: Signs of Spring  (Read 208505 times)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #600 on: 25 April, 2013, 07:25:19 pm »
My back has gone red. I was planting seeds with my shirt off. I didn't think it was for long enough to need suncream.  :facepalm:

A bit warm feeling, but not sore. I'll live.
"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 #601 on: 25 April, 2013, 09:48:59 pm »
I've not seen any bluebells here yet, & I was in prime bluebell country yesterday. Just leaves.
I'm surprised. The few I saw were all on sheltered S. facing banks, but I'd normally expect our spring to be a couple of weeks later than yours.
What's your altitude? The not yet flowering bluebells which I've been cycling past are in Chiltern beech woods, mostly above 100 metres. There are plenty of other flowers out on sunny sheltered banks, but I've still not seen any bluebells.
Most of my bit of the midlands is around 100m, though our house is 130m. Location of Sunday's observation is a bit vague, but would have been around 100m. However I've observed that that part of Worcestershire has a warmer climate & earlier spring than the country nearer home e.g. it has mistletoe & we don't. Nevertheless, both yesterday (walking) & today, in local Warwickshire I noticed one or two bluebells opening up (though not full flowers like Sunday's) in the sunnier hedgebanks.
The woodland flowers are still nowhere to be seen. We may wait a week or 2 before we see the characteristic blue carpet. I suspect it'll be well worth waiting for.

Meanwhile the wood anemones are a sight to behold just now. It is already an unforgettably good spring for ground flora ;D

Must go out tomorrow to look for the wild daffodils around Meriden. Sadly, the light is unlikely to be good for photography.

nicknack

  • Hornblower
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #602 on: 25 April, 2013, 10:48:10 pm »
First cuckoo. Down on the marshes yesterday.
There's no vibrations, but wait.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #603 on: 25 April, 2013, 10:53:40 pm »
First cuckoo. Down on the marshes yesterday.
Where's the smiley for envious  ;) .

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #604 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:11:34 pm »
DUCKLINGS!



(Spotted on the canal near Bournville station)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #605 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:13:35 pm »
DUCKLINGS!



(Spotted on the canal near Bournville station)

yes, in cambridge too!  (although these were 1/2 mile from the river, on a pavement outside a hotel. With crowds of tourists taking photos and stopping them walking onto the road).

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #606 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:30:13 pm »
DUCKLINGS!



(Spotted on the canal near Bournville station)

yes, in cambridge too!  (although these were 1/2 mile from the river, on a pavement outside a hotel. With crowds of tourists taking photos and stopping them walking onto the road).

Thank goodness for that! I couldn't bear to watch another video like this again!

Basil

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #607 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:32:51 pm »
DUCKLINGS!



(Spotted on the canal near Bournville station)

I saw them this morning1, except they were goslings, not ducklings.


1  What?  Basil cycling on the tow path?  With no-one holding a gun to his head?
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #608 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:47:28 pm »
Well, I'm not going back to double-check!
I'm saving myself for the grebe chicks in Moseley Park. I likes a grebe, me.

Basil

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #609 on: 27 April, 2013, 04:52:33 pm »
Well, I'm not going back to double-check!
I'm saving myself for the grebe chicks in Moseley Park. I likes a grebe, me.

Sorry nikki, I wasn't suggesting that yours weren't ducklings. 
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #610 on: 27 April, 2013, 05:03:52 pm »
No prob.
I'd just come off the ramp and under the bridge. There was quite a melange of waterfowl going on - was mostly concentrating on not falling in the cut! ;)

Kim

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #611 on: 27 April, 2013, 05:06:40 pm »
I saw them this morning1, except they were goslings, not ducklings.

Ah good.  The geese will be in full-on attack mode for a while, then.


Quote
What?  Basil cycling on the tow path?  With no-one holding a gun to his head?

How about a lifebelt?   ;D

Wowbagger

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #612 on: 27 April, 2013, 11:10:47 pm »
I forgot to mention the ducklings that have been in Priory Park for a week or more. I think there have been about 3 broods of varying sizes and designs.

Unfortunately, the first duckling I saw was a corpse.

One day last week we witnessed a mother duck take her brood for what appeared to be their first visit to the water. They stayed very close to her - so close that I couldn't count them. There were about 10 I think. When they are a few days old they get a lot more confidence and sometimes the mother can lose the odd duckling when it gets separated fro the crowd.

I'm looking for moorhens' nests now, and mating carp. The latter were very spectacular last year. One morning we did notice some clearly diseased fish (nasty red lesions on the skin) and some dead ones.
Quote from: Dez
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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #613 on: 28 April, 2013, 04:41:39 pm »
Swifts at the northern end of Hanningfield reservoir.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #614 on: 28 April, 2013, 06:22:53 pm »
Goslings, young rabbits.
"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

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #615 on: 01 May, 2013, 06:21:02 pm »
Spring? It's summer today!  8)
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

RJ

  • Droll rat
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #616 on: 02 May, 2013, 09:47:04 pm »
Cricket in Roseburn Park; slack-liners and barbecues on the Meadows.

a lower gear

  • Carmarthenshire - "Not ALWAYS raining!"
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #617 on: 05 May, 2013, 10:58:24 pm »
Sound of the first grasshopper of the season today.  :)

Watched the first ladybird of the year emerge from some rugged tree bark.   :D

And also saw the first wasp of the year.   :-\

Riggers

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #618 on: 07 May, 2013, 08:49:02 am »
Housemartins – seen.

Wasp – seen.

Cuckoo – heard. Near Framfield, Sussex.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

Wowbagger

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #619 on: 07 May, 2013, 08:57:17 am »
I heard willow warblers and whitethroats (had a good view of one of the latter) in Rutland over the weekend. Still no sign of cuckoos round here.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #620 on: 28 May, 2013, 10:53:48 pm »
I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't recognise a whitethroat's song.

But we've had cuckoos. The first was in The National Forest ("Conkers", near Moira) & woke up Mrs. N. every morning of a 4-day visit. The second was on Sunday's CTC ride to the Monkey House: intriguingly he managed to cut through the noise pollution from a nearby party/barbecue. The third was yesterday, while Mrs N & I were wandering through Hay Wood, enjoying the misty carpets of bluebells & swathes of stitchwort. The last was closer to home than any previous cuckoos. I don't think I've heard as many as 3 cuckoos in one year for more than a decade.

Basil

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #621 on: 30 May, 2013, 02:12:31 pm »
As I was leaving the house for the quiz last night, I could hear that one of the House Martin nests on the front of our house seemed to be occupied.  No sighting yet, but someone was in there sounding exited.
Hooray :thumbsup:
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Wowbagger

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #622 on: 16 November, 2013, 09:06:49 pm »
Today, at about 2.30pm, a very confused song thrush was trying to pretend it wasn't November in a garden in Chrishall. A lovely song, and very welcome even if the voice's owner wants its head examined.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #623 on: 17 November, 2013, 11:57:43 am »
And this morning, our walk round the park revealed not just hawthorn in flower but also a snowdrop.

I regard the hawthorn, which was just one branch of one tree, as an aberration. The snowdrops have been getting earlier and earlier but I have never seen them in November before. Last year the first was about 20th December, from memory. (Edit: 21st. https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=29530.msg1381525#msg1381525)

Photos to follow.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #624 on: 17 November, 2013, 12:00:42 pm »
There are still lots of green leaves on almost all the trees here. It looks like September at the latest. In fact the only tree that has lost all it's leaves is our rowan, which spends most of its time in the shadow of the kitchen.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.