I have never seen the mayflower so early or so abundant, yet the hazel is well behind its normal schedule, the first buds just beginning to show. The oaks haven't acknowledged the end of winter yet. And so far in the garden we have had bullfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, a linnet, tree sparrows, woodpeckers, blue tits, great tits, collared doves, woodpigeons, blackbirds and house sparrows. The bats come out at dusk, and there is a pair of owls nesting nearby whose cries wake me up sometimes in the night. There have been no thrushes yet, which is strange. The robins are still plentiful. A pair of buzzards is circling lazily in the thermals. It is ridiculously early for the housemartins, swifts and swallows, but they'll probably be here soon. All very strange, but good fun.
10 April 2007
Spring
I have never seen the mayflower so early or so abundant, yet the hazel is well behind its normal schedule, the first buds just beginning to show. The oaks haven't acknowledged the end of winter yet. And so far in the garden we have had bullfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, a linnet, tree sparrows, woodpeckers, blue tits, great tits, collared doves, woodpigeons, blackbirds and house sparrows. The bats come out at dusk, and there is a pair of owls nesting nearby whose cries wake me up sometimes in the night. There have been no thrushes yet, which is strange. The robins are still plentiful. A pair of buzzards is circling lazily in the thermals. It is ridiculously early for the housemartins, swifts and swallows, but they'll probably be here soon. All very strange, but good fun.
Bah!
ReplyDeleteI spent most of the afternoon rodding two sacksfull of debris out of my chimney, after setting off all the smoke alarms last night. Jackdaws. The thing is, I chased them off no more than ten days ago and swept the lum too.
There's a white riot of sloe blossoms at the bottom of the garden, and far more bumble bees than usual I think - big fat blighters in stripy jumpers.
A lovely weekend in everything non-liturgical - which brings me to the piece below...