Saturday 31 March 2012

Another Record-breaking Month

Another month of surprises - one of the warmest Marches on record. The temperature reached 23C here last week. And virtually no rain! Everything is topsy turvy. The bluebells started to flower in the middle of March, at least a month early. There are lots of flowers in bloom but the lack of rain seems to have delayed the leaves on the trees. Strange indeed.

Long-tailed tit

There has been frantic activity in the garden this month. The birds are in furious nest-building mode. The long-tailed tits are building their nest in one of the ornamental firs next to the driveway. They have been fluttering around my office window collecting spiders webs that accumulate around my window.

A pair of great tits have started building in the new nest box on the pergola. This is usually blue tit territory.

Last week I was watching a Red Kite collecting twigs for a nest which I think is in our garden. I am not completely sure where but it is very exciting if such magnificent birds of prey are nesting here.

The hares are out in force. There were five of them in the garden last week, but no opportunity for photos. They are one of my favourite animals.

There is also a new baby muntjac. I spotted it last week with its mother just as it was getting dark, so no decent photo.

The warm weather has also brought out the butterflies. I have seen brimstone, holly blue, large white, orange tip and the comma below which was sun-bathing with a blowfly on my Cherry Laurel last week!

Comma and Blowfly

I will finish off with a photo of a pair of wood anemones. There are lots of them among the primroses, wood sorrel and violets, all of which are flowering really early.


Wood Anemone

I have set myself a challenge for April. I plan to photograph a flower each day for the whole month, hoping that I can manage 30 different ones. I hope the weather does not deteriorate too much. Photographing flowers is impossible in wind and rain. Fingers crossed.

1 comment:

Sandra said...

Hello Jenny, so nice to see an entry from you again!
That long-tailed tit is so sweet and you have captured him so well! Lovely butterfly shot too, I've never seen that one before.
I just love wood anenomes and the woods and banks are full of them too at the moment.
You shouldn't have much trouble finding a different flower a day to photograph at this time of year... everything is so abundant, isn't it? Imagine the bluebells being in bloom so early. The leaves on the trees are late too and we have had 3 weeks of warm sunny weather and no rain.
By the way, in case you're wondering, I've let go of my pseudonym "zinnia" and use my own name on my blog now and when I leave comments on other's blogs.
I hope I can read your word identification below to prove I'm not a robot! I eliminated the one on my blog because people started complaining!
Have a lovely Sunday!
Sandra