Flyladyphotography By Wendy Cooper

  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 s...

  After a few weekends stuck indoors with inclement weather and a bad dose of the sniffles, I finally managed a bit of a stroll on my local patch the other weekend. The weather forecast had been for bright, sunny and (almost) warm weather, however the sun was intermittent and the temperature was still south of the double figures predicted!  Nevertheless, I was pleased to get out into the fresh air and stretch my legs! I have been hearing, not only the Robins which regularly visit my garden, but also those that have territories just inside the woods at the top of the road.  Sure enough, as I walked up, there was one singing from the top of the hazel and just inside the woods, in the tangle of Blackthorn, the usual resident was hopping up and down between the branches and a particular patch on the ground.  Distracted for a moment by a scrabbling - two squirrels chasing through an old Hawthorn,  I turned my attention back to the Robin.  He was concentratin...