Author Topic: Signs of Spring  (Read 208717 times)

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1200 on: 06 March, 2019, 06:57:24 pm »
...I was perplexed that the hedges on the sides of that bit of Loxley Road were covered with green bird-proof netting. I learned today that the netting was probably put there by property developers hoping to pre-empt conflicts between building more houses and displacing nesting birds. I need to stir things a bit in Warwickshire Wildlife Trust...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/is-it-cruel-to-set-up-nets-prevent-bird-nesting-jeremy-vine-chris-packham-protesting

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1201 on: 07 March, 2019, 08:46:15 pm »
...I was perplexed that the hedges on the sides of that bit of Loxley Road were covered with green bird-proof netting. I learned today that the netting was probably put there by property developers hoping to pre-empt conflicts between building more houses and displacing nesting birds. I need to stir things a bit in Warwickshire Wildlife Trust...
Thanks for the link. I'm pretty confident that it was the bit of of road featured in tonight's BBC West Midlands News, though (I think it represents a disinterest element in the BBC charter) without taking sides.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/is-it-cruel-to-set-up-nets-prevent-bird-nesting-jeremy-vine-chris-packham-protesting

What I didn't say in my previous post, but did point out to the full-time WkWT staff when I commented on the netting, is that the skylarks would probably be nesting on the ground behind the hedges. Sadly it's likely that spraying with herbicides will get rid of the skylarks before the diggers move in & any legal basis for any objection may no longer exist. Nevertheless I shall inquire tomorrow (the work party leader is a young woman trainee, who is currently rather focused on finishing the paperwork for her NVQ, but she is quite a bit more competent than some of the men who have preceded her).

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1202 on: 08 March, 2019, 09:38:31 am »
Stink bugs. Our house is half-timbered and over 180 years old, and has many nooks & crannies whereby the buggers can enter once the weather gets cold. Come the spring...

MrsT won't go near them, so for the last two or three weeks I've been putting at least one per day out the window. Some of them don't even squirt first. Today's did.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1203 on: 08 March, 2019, 11:19:59 pm »
A couple of violet flowers... I don't which species. They were very different from the dog violets that I'm encouraging in our lawn (it's not a very good enviroment for grass) but I didn't notice enough details to glean any clues. I was humping bits of fencing wood, so wasn't easily able to kneel & do the scent test. I reflected on the ride home that hairy/glabrous undersides of leaves was a feature I should have thought to look for. OTOH we finished work early & I rode home before the rain was heavy enough to justify waterproof trousers :).

Also, on the climb up to the Welcombe Hotel car park, steep banks which had obviously been planted with non-native daffodils, which were flowering enthusiastically & looked attractively springlike. But underneath the daffs was a veritable carpet of primrose flowers, in clumps big enough that they'd evidently been there before the daffs were planted, maybe even natives.

Surprise of the day was the lack of celandines in flower.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1204 on: 09 March, 2019, 11:40:48 pm »
Frogspawn. Quite a lot in the bit of water when I have only ever seen 1 tadpole in many years' visiting the park and noticing that there's frogspawn in the water.

Black headed gulls in summer plumage. They are wary buggers. The moment I lifted my phone to take a photo they took off and flew a couple of hundred yards away.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1205 on: 14 March, 2019, 01:23:35 pm »
Clematis Armadii in full bloom in the garden

Clematis by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1206 on: 14 March, 2019, 05:49:54 pm »
And the first picking of wild garlic leaves for tonight’s mash.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1207 on: 14 March, 2019, 06:18:29 pm »
Magnolia trees just about to bloom in Warwick. I hope the wind and/or a late frost doesn't see them off...
Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, Macintyre, Treadmore, Davitt.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1208 on: 14 March, 2019, 06:19:53 pm »
The magnolia trees are out on the Tring road heading into Aylesbury, my wife commented on them on our way to the theatre this afternoon.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1209 on: 14 March, 2019, 06:56:04 pm »
Next door's magnolia was emerging three weeks ago.

Daffs are finishing  :(

Trees are losing their blossoms.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1210 on: 15 March, 2019, 09:47:44 am »
And the first picking of wild garlic leaves for tonight’s mash.

I noticed the first few wild garlic leaves on Wednesday on my way to the bikeshed/gym. That now reminds me to have some in my lunch  :thumbsup:
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

rr

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1211 on: 16 March, 2019, 11:46:26 pm »
Blackbird fledgling seen this morning.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk


Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1212 on: 17 March, 2019, 10:30:14 pm »
Chiffchaff singing near my son's house in Ardleigh.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1213 on: 18 March, 2019, 12:20:42 pm »
KItes flying overhead with nesting materials, and a bluetit recceing the nestbox in the woods. Oh, and our first tulip is out, and the pear tree buds are just breaking.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1214 on: 18 March, 2019, 02:16:57 pm »
Magnolias have been looking and smelling magnificent for a week or so.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
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Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1215 on: 19 March, 2019, 06:45:30 pm »
I've passed by this year's first patch of bluebells in full bloom whilst walking the dog this evening.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1216 on: 20 March, 2019, 09:42:37 pm »
43 mile bike ride today. Several skylarks, chiffchaffs and a coulpe of song thrushes singing. Interestingly, no blackbirds singing, although whilst I was sitting near the River Can eating my lunch there was an almighty rumpus between a pair of blackbirds and a couple of magpies. I couldn't see the details of what was going on, but my guess was that the magpies were trying to raid the blackbirds' nest.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1217 on: 21 March, 2019, 08:22:08 am »
Violets everywhere, esp. in the cracks between the concrete slabs outside my workshop.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1218 on: 21 March, 2019, 01:03:04 pm »
A brace of avian percussionists communicating.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1219 on: 22 March, 2019, 11:13:43 pm »
A brace of avian percussionists communicating.
Presumably Greater?

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1220 on: 23 March, 2019, 12:03:00 am »
Yesterday was chiffchaffs. My first of the year was at the top of Goldicote Cutting (what's he doing in a natuire reserve?), followed by most of a dozen on the way to Ilmington & then back to Straford on the Greenway.

Today at coffe time we were treated to a chiffchaff who was clearly still learning the notes. By the time we went back to uprooting willow saplings he'd practised enough to sing whole phrases confidently. I wish I could learn the notes that quickly.

Late in the day came the unmistakable pattern of a great tit's song (strictly speaking the texbook pattern; our great tits are masters at improvising on a repeated 2-note motif). The only problem was that it wasn't a great tit's voice. In due course the songster reverted to his proper blackbird song, before teasing us once again with the neatly phrased repeated 2-note motif. How did he learn that?

Also at coffe time, my first 2019 butterfly, a brimstone. There were other flutterers later, but too far away to identify, though one was definitely dark (peacock or tortoiseshell would seem most likely).

I'm not sure if it's strictly about spring, but we had a number of noisy swans flying over. I haven't checked with my antique birdsong cassette, but would guess whooper swans. I'm sure I've heard others this year, but not in the previous 73 years.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1221 on: 23 March, 2019, 01:44:32 pm »
High-revving motorbikes and topless cars are back. One of the latter just blew a series of backfires on the street outside and accelerated away up to the main road. Could hear it blatting about ten times as long as a proper car would be audible.  I do hope there's a peeler listening.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1222 on: 23 March, 2019, 05:11:19 pm »
First lunch in the garden today.  And the armandii is fantastic, the smell today was glorious.

Spring by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

And the fritillaries are lovely too

Spring by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1223 on: 24 March, 2019, 06:30:54 pm »
Three on today's ride to the seaside:
  • A bee-face interaction
  • Two neo-Mods on highly customised scooters with illegal zorsts
  • The year's first shirtless man
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Signs of Spring
« Reply #1224 on: 24 March, 2019, 09:54:52 pm »
This weekend, the first of the bluebells and cowslips, and also hawthorn flowering in the hedges.
"ne'er cast a clout 'till may be out", so I can legitimately wear shorts now :) (I've been in shorts for about a month)