Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  Since Easter, rather a lot of  'Springy things' have been appearing on my local patch, so here is a selection from my Nature diary of what I've been seeing.   Early signs that Spring really was about to get started were the appearance of Lesser Celandine flowers and dainty white Wood Anemones; as the woodland floor began to green-up, there were bright spots of these delicate yellow and white flowers Lesser Celandine Wood Anemone   Another hint was that  some of the birds had started nest building, this one was taken back in February of a Long Tailed Tit pair - I watched it's construction over about three weeks and at one point in March, did see Mum or Dad peeping out, whilst either brooding or waiting for the other to return with food for the youngsters.  Going by timescale I think a brood may have been successfully raised and fledged, although I have not seen a little troupe in the surrounding trees and bushes.   (The photo was taken with a lo...

  Well hello there! It's been a while, but was waiting for the tadpoles! Just inside the woodland, where I go a-wandering, there is a little pond, where every year in the Spring, the local Frogs have a bit of a get together.  Frogs tend to return to where they were spawned, following a trail of familiar scents.  Adjacent to the woods are houses and we certainly have our share in either the front or back garden, as well as in our own little pond.  Often when it rains, they can be found hopping across our road or in our front garden.  In my back garden, there are plenty to be found around  the pond and during the summer we end up with lots of tiny frogs in the lawn.   Back in mid-March, I went on one of my usual catch-up-on-the-local-patch strolls and had noticed a little bit of activity in the pond, which with slightly milder weather, had become smothered in chickweed.  On this particular morning, the chickweed was looking rather lumpy and mo...

  Well on a cloudy Good Friday afternoon, I decided to have a little wander on the local patch, as I fancied a 'catch-up' to see how Spring is progressing after a couple of weeks absence. It was very overcast, but not too breezy and was reasonably mild, so I set off along the usual path through the top part of the woods.  There were two wrens 'declaring' on separate bramble patches, so I stopped to see if I could catch a closer look - no luck, they were both on a rather loud, high speed patrol of their chosen territories.  As I stood peering hopefully at likely spots that they might perch, I saw something scooting up a nearby tree; a busy Treecreeper on the forage.  At certain times of the year, particularly during the spring and early summer, there are quite a few about busily collecting food.  There are plenty of 'holey' trees, although I've yet to spy where they may nest. After watching it forage and spiral at speed up the tree, until I could no longer ...

The past couple of weekends have seen a change in the weather - windy, bright and a lot sunnier, so I went and had a bit of a walk around the local patch of woodland and farmland that I frequent.   The first thing I noticed was the amount of new greenery that had appeared - all across the floor of the woodland bluebells are starting to shoot through the leafcover as well as primroses in places and ground-ivy, the latter were just starting to flower the weekend just past. Bluebell Shoots     Ground Ivy Primroses Just inside the woods there is a small pond, which is mostly filled with leaf mould and old branches; the water is much deeper this time of year and surprisingly clear, although when the sunlight gets on it, there is a good deal of chickweed.  Once the plants in the wood start to shoot, the ground is warming up - likewise the pond is too.  Whilst there are no fish, it's inhabitants start to wake from the depths or wander in from nearby gardens...