Mad as a pond full of frogs..

And the pond has been FULL of frogs this weekend, we've been counting somewhere between 10 and 15 at any one time, all croaking away. There only seems to be one clump of frog spawn as yet, which makes us wonder if there are a lot of males and only one female in the pond. But everywhere you look there are frogs, on the weed, under the weed, swimming around...  In previous years we've been quite worried about the number of tadpoles which do not metamorphose properly into frogs, but clearly there must have been quite a number which did given how many have returned as adults. We also got a brief view of a newt in there today, probably trying to avoid being squished by amourous frogs I should think. We've had newts consistantly for a couple of years now, though the eggs are hard to spot and newt-poles very furtive, so we don't know if they're breeding. They're common newts, and none the worse for that, including a male who does look very handsome!

Kit also had a hornet sighting in the tree house today. I trust him to identify it correctly because he's seen a hornet before and is unlikely to confuse it with a queen wasp. I'm sorry I missed it because they're such spectactular insects, though I hope it was only foraging and not looking to nest because we don't really have anywhere which can take a hornet nest safely and I'd hate to have them exterminated as they're so amazing and still quite rare - though numbers are up now. Over in the water park my mate Will says they always 'lose' a few bat boxes every year to nesting hornets. So as long as they don't nest, they're welcome to forage here any time.

No sign of any of the birds taking an interest in the new nest boxes yet, but it's still early days for that. But there are loads of them hitting the feeders still so I'm hopeful that the blue tits will make use of them.

Bird Boxes

The first of the bird boxes are up, there are lots of blue tits around the garden so with any luck they'll get used. I've put up two so far but I'd like to put up some more before the spring if I can.There are also lots of birds busy feeding in the garden now, which is great because I was really worried that numbers had plummted from what they were, but now it's looking good again.

It's turned cold again, so the frog-bonkfest seems to have stopped: no frogspawn as yet.

Annoying the frogs and cutting the hedge

Over the last couple of days the pond has become alive with frogs, loads of them croaking and making out for all they're worth. I'm guessing that the warm weather has bought them out. We had lots of frog spawn last year, which turned into lots of tadpoles, however a lot of them never turned into frogs, though guessing by the sheer number of them which have turned up last week a fair number must have done so!

The problem is that the pond was really in need of a clear out, with planting baskets overflowing, mare's tail clogging the surface and a shortage of clear water, so with the sudden frog influx the only option was to clean it out today. Even with my pond gloves on the water was very cold, so how the frogs manage I don't know! I pulled out bucket loads of unwanted foliage and root mass, and disposed of a couple of the more overgrown baskets entirely. It looks a bit barren at present but it will look all the better for it in a couple of months. Now the frogs can lay as much frog spawn as they want without me having to disturb it further.

The other thing I've been doing is to do some serious cutting back on the hedge which the council decided last year was mine. I cut it back on the pavement side quite hard so it doesn't come as near to the pavement, which means that this year it can grown back in quite thickly without overhanging the footpath. I also tried half cutting through and bending over a seedling ash tree because frankly I don't want an ash tree there...but I could live with, and in fact encourage, a bushing ash if the bulk of it was back nearer the hedge itself. There's loads of bun on the hawthornes which have so much more room now the hedge has been thinned out as it was last summer too. I've bought a couple of bird boxes to put up in some of the taller trees in the hedge so I'll have to get those put up soon. Quite a lot of stuff is showing buds beginning to break, so spring is definitely on the way.

Now the warm weather has come the birds are all over the feeders...in the cold weather when you'd expect 'em to want extra food they hardly showed up, now there are always birds on them: go figure.

Flowers!

We've been away for a week, and come back to loads of snowdrops in flower which is lovely, we've been seeing lots in Dorset and it was good to come back to some brightening our garden. The bluebells continue their inexorable appearence through the 'impermeable' membrane too. The birds have also emptied the feeders while we've been away, so while through the really cold snap they've not shown much interest given a somewhat milder week and they've scoffed the lot!

We've also had a collared dove in the garden, so much 'tidier' than our normal overweight pigeons, not that I want to diss the pigeons of course. We haven't seen any siskins this year, and we normally get one or two, nor have we had a fieldfare in the garden though there have been flocks of them about.

Big Freeze

It's been so cold here this week, ending with snow, that nothing in the garden has moved at all. It's been striking how many fewer garden birds there have been though as I've had the feeders full and there have been occasional visitors rather than the flocks of greedy feeders we've had in previous years. The Long-Tailed tits turned up to enjoy the fat balls this morning, but as always a camera is a LTT deterent of the first order and no sooner had I got my Canon than they disappeared. The Robin has been around of course, as have the usual few great tits and chaffinches. 

The pond wasn't frozen solid today, as the temperature had gone up a lot after the snow last night - though all is still dormant fortunately. One assumes the frogs and toads are hibernating safely under rocks and stones nearby, and the snails have retreated to the deeper water.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Sue did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch today - as is always the case with this event for us there were fewer birds than we normally see, though she spotted Blackbirds, Hedge Sparrows, Great Tits and Blue Tits. The Long-Tailed Tits never show up in our garden for this event...

 http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

Long Tailed Tits

Loads of them on the fat balls late this afternoon, about 8 of them rocked up from nowhere. Always a cheerful sight...