Saw a blackbird collecting nesting material this morning and thought it was a bit it early in the year.Could this be a sign of mild weather coming in time for the new season.
andy
we can hope, but there is probably some way to go yet! :D
I see that quite a lot at this time around the garden. It doesn't mean they are about to lay eggs though. They usually build two or three nests and then pick the one they are going to use when the time comes. It is a sort of pre nuptial activity, like avian foreplay :)
I'm sure spring is on its way, i hear the woodpeckers starting to rattle on the telegraph poles, the robin was singing his little heart out the this morning and two dippers on the river were chasing fighting and whistling at each other but i am sure winter will have sting in it's tale before we see the geese going north and house martins arriving here usually about the 17th of April
Saw a skein of geese heading north yesterday, probably the same ones I heard heading south last week :)
Usually a huge number of geese on Montrose basin but this winter they must have moved south as we are only hearing the odd skein heading back to the basin at night after feeding in the fields
There's a bit of heat in the mid afternoon sun now, if your lucky enough to get some. The back of it is broken it's all headed in the right direction 1 or 2 mins per day, I'm just hoping for better weather than last year...............
Snowdrops are up and flowering, Crocus too and the Polyanthus. Daffodils are up and showing the flower stems in anongst the leaves. Still a way to go yet but we are getting there :)
On the banks of the Lunan water there are flowering snowdrops everywhere. It is a cheery sign.
I am also noticing the climate at 40M above sea level on the south sid4e of the Grampian chain is rather more congenial than that at 250M on the north side. :8)
i don't like to see an early spring . in my experience it encourages fish to be active and feeding when they should still be lying comatose.the first weeks of the season are usually great but then it can be dour for the rest of the year.rivers may be different but that is my experience on lochs.
Garry
I had a look around the garden this morning while hanging out some washing. There is nothing early. All the usual plants are beginning to come to life. The Bleeding Heart is up about six inches, the buds on the Hydrangea are beginning to open, Honeysuckle too. The one thing that seems to be late is the Forsythia as the flowers haven't appeared yet but I may have trimmed that too much in the autumn, although ours seems to be a late flowering one and they don't appear until nearer March.
My hay fever has started up again :) that will be those bloody snowdrops.
That's because you were on the dark side over there Fred
Quote from: hopper on February 17, 2013, 10:34:43 PM
That's because you were on the dark side over there Fred
Tell me about it Eric. 30 odd years of sheer hell. :lol:
What you say is right Fred in Montrose in the summer it can be 3 or 4 degrees colder and in the winter Montrose is always 2 or 3 degrees warmer and as you know i only live 5 miles in land and only 60 feet above sea level
Quote from: garryh on February 17, 2013, 12:06:51 PM
i don't like to see an early spring . in my experience it encourages fish to be active and feeding when they should still be lying comatose.the first weeks of the season are usually great but then it can be dour for the rest of the year.rivers may be different but that is my experience on lochs.
Garry
I don't think we're having an early spring. Sun is shining with me, back of the house is around 9ºC, even warmer out of the light easterly breeze but there was a frost on the car in the shade of the front, until a couple of hours ago. Rather normal mid February conditions IMO. Get out of the sun and it's still very much winter.
Spring takes it's time to settle in, there's still plenty time for a sharp late winter shock, or three, before we'll see the last of it.