Wildlife Corner

[Tizer]

Lots of flowers out early here, both wild and ornamental. Buttercups and daises are brightening the verges. The leaves on deciduous trees are ready to burst out of bud. Some trees are covered in catkins.

Yesterday morning one of our neighbours was using a rake to break up worm casts which have popped out all over his front lawn. His back lawn is normal - no show of worm casts there! Coincidentally, at lunchtime we listened to a radio programme about the problem of `alien' introductions of plants and animals. We were surprised to learn that much of the USA doesn't have earthworms. The reason given was that at the end of the last Ice Age the glaciers and extreme cold were slower to retreat from the US than here in Europe and the worms have been slower to re-populate the north.

[Stanley]

That's an interesting fact about Earthworms in the US Peter.
I remember seeing a crown bowling green being wormed when I was a lad. The worm casts interfered with the smooth running of the bowls. The green was watered with a chemical and all the worms came to the surface where they were swept into heaps and barrowed away. There were hundreds of thousands!
I rather think that if such practices are still in use they will not advertise it.
Apart from that, thanks for the evidence of signs of Spring. At the moment the only sign we have hear is the lengthening of the days. (07:30 -17.15 today....)

[Wendyf]

Curlews yesterday and frog activity in the pond this morning! It could be that Spring is a possibility despite the wet gloom and the snow still sitting against the walls and on the ditches.

[Tizer]

Frog and newt activity here, Wendy, but no sign of curlews!

[Stanley]

We forget too easily how long the snow can linger under the walls and where there were deep drifts.....
This unseasonably warm weather tends to help us think of Spring....
It's been a mild winter actually, as befits the warmest year since records began but for me it has been inclement! Even in a hard winter there are bright days that encourage you out. These have been thin on the ground this winter.
(Or is that just my age?)

[Tizer]

I've googled `When did England last have a winter with no snow?' but can't find any mention of it. I wonder if there ever has been one in recorded history? There were probably some such winters in the warm periods around a thousand years ago but maybe not since then.

[Stanley]

We have had a couple of spells of light snow but nothing like earlier years.
Peter, what year were you born? You mentioned snow and I wondered if it was 1947.....

[Tizer]

Yes, the winter of `47 and my mother only just completing her first year after coming from South Africa. Our coalman was an educated chap and lived in the same street as us. He understood what a shock the cold was for my mother and was very kind - he always left us an extra, free large cob of coal on the back door step.

[Stanley]

Ahh, a year to remember for some of us Peter. The start of the NHS and the worst winter in living memory. THIS Wikipedia article is worth a read. I compare it with this year, that really brings it home.

[Tizer]

We've now got our first frog spawn for this year - but it wasn't laid in the pond, it was in a bird bath! Our garden slopes and one side of the pond is above a low wall. At the bottom of the wall is a shallow ceramic bowl filled with water about an inch deep to allow birds and other animals to drink or wash. I've transferred the spawn to the pond and we'll see if it has been fertilised or not.

[Tizer]

A day later...
We've moved on. This morning there was another mass of eggs in the bird bowl but also a new lot in the pond. I've put out another shallow dish of water next to the other one in case the frogs prefer that to the pond! Perhaps they're shy?

[Stanley]

Lovely! Signs of Spring!

Later at 05:21. Susan has just mailed me from Oz where they are holidaying south of Perth at Dunsborough. She told me about swimming with dolphins and also about when she was sat in the shade under a tree knitting and a possum fell out of the tree right next to her. The branch it had been sleeping on must have broken.
Not something that happens in Barlick!

[Tizer]

Another but smaller blob of frog spawn this morning - and it's in the pond, which has saved me doing a rescue job! We now wait to see if and how quickly the eggs develop into tadpoles. It's been mild here for the last week, both day and night, but colder weather comes in at the end of the week. That will slow development.

[Stanley]

I don't think the cooler weather is going to be cold enough to have any serious effect Peter. We are having a very easy winter!

[Cathy]

Quite a few Maggie’s , in packs, around at the moment.
Very striking birds.
Look at the size of this one. Beautiful.

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[Tizer]

They look a lot bigger than our magpies!

I'm glad to see we are getting a pair of greenfinches visiting our garden - the first we've seen for about 20 years or more. Like chaffinches they were almost exterminated here due to a disease carried by pigeons. Unfortunately the disease doesn't kill the pigeons themselves so they have thrived at the expense of the smaller birds.

[Stanley]

Cathy, I follow a Youtube channel, Cutting Edge Engineering in Australia and they have magpies that visit them and one will feed of Kurtis' hand. They are smaller than yours and very intelligent birds.....

[Stanley]

I think this is the right place for this.
See THIS BBC report on Giant Redwoods in the UK.
Giant redwoods - the world's largest trees - are flourishing in the UK and now even outnumber those found in their native range in California. The giants were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, and a new study suggests they are growing at a similar rate to their US counterparts. An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. However they aren't yet as tall. In California they can reach 90m-high, but in the UK the tallest is 54.87m. But that's because the introduced trees are still very young. Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years, so there's still plenty of time for the UK's trees to catch up "Half a million trees is quite a lot to go under the radar until now, but it's when you start looking for them in the landscape, and compiling these datasets, that you realise how many there are," said Dr Phil Wilkes, one of the authors of the study, from Kew's botanic garden at Wakehurst in Sussex.
The nearest specimens I know are at Eshton Hall. The thing that struck me about them is the thickness of the bark. Since then I have been told that this is a natural protection against fire. The bark chars and stops the burning penetrating to the trunk.

[Tizer]

We have them in Taunton, planted in the mid-1800s. Also called Wellingtonia....

[Stanley]

Yes, that's what I have heard them called. But I wasn't sure. The ones at Eshton are about the same size as those in Taunton. They are big trees!

[Tizer]

The ones shown are in what used to be the drive up to a grand house in park land but is now an expensive housing estate. At the end and around the corner there is a gigantic cedar too. These trees are on a ridge and can be seen from many miles away and make it easy to pinpoint Taunton's position from a long distance.

[Stanley]

The specimens at Eshton are in the grounds of Eshton Hall Peter. A bit of Old England.

[Cathy]

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[Stanley]

Thanks Cathy! I didn't know that. The more I learn about bees the more they impress me.
And the only time they fight is in defence. They have more sense than us!

[Cathy]

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A local visiting again.
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The house across from me had been empty for a couple of weeks and each day a few Maggie’s spent time in the front garden.
The new owners have a Cat. This week I watched the Cat and the Maggie’s meeting. All close together, making out that they weren’t interested in each other, but standing their ground.
It was all very calm, but I was holding my breath .