A Lot More Spring and not so many Robins..
Well, after a few days last week when the weather turned considerably milder, I simply had to get out on the Local Patch to have a catch up and see what was about! I wandered up to the entrance to the woodland and could see a couple of Grey Squirrels scooting about in the trees around the pond – still in courtship mode! I paused for a moment, as did one of the Squirrels, who gave me a bit of a lookover before continuing after the one he had been pursuing. I continued over to the pond, where a couple of weeks previously, there had been a somewhat smaller, but earlier, Frog Ball going on. The Frogs had arrived ten days earlier this year than last and the party had been in full swing, with plenty of Froggy couples and quite a bit of Frogspawn. The pond is somewhat shallower than it has been in previous years, however this has not deterred the frogs. As I looked around the pond, a regular annual visitor caught my eye, a female Mallard. For a short time each spring I see either