Signs of Spring

[Cudzoziemiec]

Unwanted sign of spring: my red arms. 

[Kim]

Ah yes, my cyclists's tan has rebooted.  Seem to have avoided any actual burnage.

[orienteer]

On our usual walk along a local river, we see coots, moorhens, swans and Mallard ducks. Today a female duck had seven ducklings in tow.

[orienteer]

Today, in the hissing rain, some moorhen chicks which were too elusive to count. Two duck families, one with ten and the other with four ducklings. Hope the latter wasn't yesterday's seven 

On checking, mallards have clutches of between 8 and 13. That suggests the survival rate isn't very high.

[Wowbagger]

One year, I saw a mallard with 10 ducklings in our local park on 28th February. We then had a fortnight's really cold weather and I'm sure the lot died. Another year, another mallard had some 10 duckings following her around and they were almost full size.

[SteveC]

Two swifts while on our permitted exercise yesterday.

[T42]

Not to be read while eating chocolate chip cookies or currant buns.

(click to show/hide)

The neighbours having chickens, and there being a cowshed not so far away, we always get invaded by fat blue-arsed flies at this time of year.  This year's a bit different, though, because although the daytime temperature is around 20°C they're as dozy as hell, and we can pick them off the windows with kitchen paper, then a quick squeeze, pop, and into the bin.  We reckon something's poisoning them but dunno what.

Or garibaldi for that matter.

[Pingu]

First swifts of the year 

[Wowbagger]

First swifts of the year 

I should have mentioned: Sunday 3rd May for me. For a while some were taking an interest in the house opposite ours, which I found interesting because I am sure they have never nested there before. However, that interest was short-lived. I would rather like to have swifts nesting in my ouse, although I suspect they might be noisy lodgers. I could put up with that for <4 months every year though.

[T42]

I was forgetting that we heard a cuckoo on Sunday, down in some trees along the stream by the sports ground.  There's one returns there every year. MrsT has seen it, but I haven't.

Cue Delius. https://youtu.be/3xHIhcstxUM