Tuesday 31 March 2009

Serenade



Well, I’m in a good mood for once!

Came home, although somewhat dull and overcast, it’s fairly warm and don’t really need a coat. Out I went to check on the plants, see of any of the Daffodils have finally opened and such. Lots of birds around singing, and BB was putting on a glorious show. I just had to sit outside and listen to his serenade.

It’s not often I hear him singing, strangely enough. Probably because my hearing is so poor, and the song reminds me of being at home, growing up. I’d hear it all the time, makes me wish I was still young. Fond memories.

Wonderful.

And I’ll leave you with some spring photos:

Dicentra

Aquilegia

Heather

Osmanthus

Thursday 12 March 2009

Sprawk is back!



I haven’t seen the Sparrow Hawk since September/October??

Well, this evening I was sat poised with the camera waiting for the birds to visit the feeder. Everything had gone quiet and just one female BB was hanging around by the shrubs, she then decided to start attacking the fence, I assume she’d seen a yummy bug, then something swoops into the garden, swerves and out again towards the massive pear trees…

My brain finally clicks and realise it must’ve been a Sparrow hawk and Mrs BB was desperately trying to get through the fence to safety.

Camera is aimed towards the tree to try to get a positive ID, but I couldn’t see it. A few seconds later Magpies fly in to obviously make the Sprawk move on.

Well, that’ll explain why things had got quiet and Mrs BB had remained pretty much stock still for almost 10 minutes!

I believe it left empty handed because there wasn’t anything on the feeders or in the cherry tree.

Hmmm I also wonder if it’s a regular around 5 pm, because the same happened yesterday when I was sat waiting for the birds.

Sunday 8 March 2009

LTT's and Blossom



This weekend has been quite interesting, mainly because of the crazy weather today. Blinding sunshine, closely followed by teeming rain intermittently and then onto Hail around an hour ago and now we’re back to sunshine.

It is rather chilly outside though, I’d assumed it would be ok to go for a potter around the garden checking on the Daffodils – well I soon changed my mind on that one and scurried back inside :D

On Saturday I had noticed some LTT’s visiting, nothing too exciting as they do visit from time to time, only I then saw them another three times within the hour and today I’ve seen then numerous times. So that’s very exciting and I hope they’re nesting in the area – even more exciting if they were different pairs visiting!

(very tough taking photos, with the bright sun and dark background. The Blossom is a little bit over exposed unfortunately)





















And now onto the blossom photos I didn’t post last week, this crazy tree has been flowering since at least October but more recently there are far more flowers...
















Sunday 1 March 2009

Sunny Spring Sunday


I think I can officially announce Spring has arrived for me.

We’ve now got a fair few plants in bloom and others coming through, mainly excited to see the Dicentra is on its way.

First up we have the arguing Goldies:
(btw, notice the one Goldie to the left eating I assume some seeds. It's a Verbena, hadn't ever heard they'd eat the seeds... Interesting to see! Especially since they're ignoring the sunflowers I've left to go to seed... Haha)


Then onto the plants

Iris

Snowdrop

Cyclamen with Iris in the background

Dicentra

Aquilegia

Unknown, I think it’s Icelandic poppy… I didn’t realise they were perennials though??

Crocus

I should probably stop there since you’re all asleep now… The Blossom flowers can come another day [: