Oh So Slow Spring..................
It began to bud out fine way back in early February. Then it stalled. Now its late, but progressing oh so slowly. What happened to the hyped ‘global warming’? 41 years ago all the large trees were breaking out in green leaf. I know as I was bed bound at the time, well, I supposed to have been, according to my midwife of the time!
Today only the Willows glow green. Even the hedgerows are making slow progress. In one of the patches of sun this morning the tiny leaf budlets on the row of Hornbeam trees lining the footpath at the back of our house showed up as tiny gleams of light. Normally they are among the first of the larger trees to burst into leaf in spring. Come on spring hurry up I need your lovely lime greens to cheer me up!
The Birds
The birds also have realised spring is slow this year. They’re just beginning their courting rituals and gathering nesting materials. The feeders in the garden have been emptying frequently as the feed themselves up ready for mating. Blackbirds have been chasing each other around the garden to establish whose territory it will be. Doves have been billing and cooing on the trees and fences. Sparrows have been flapping their feathers and wings at each other in their courtship dances.
The new Niger feeders have attracted two pairs of siskins and a pair of bull finches. The siskins are quite rare around here.
It began to bud out fine way back in early February. Then it stalled. Now its late, but progressing oh so slowly. What happened to the hyped ‘global warming’? 41 years ago all the large trees were breaking out in green leaf. I know as I was bed bound at the time, well, I supposed to have been, according to my midwife of the time!
Today only the Willows glow green. Even the hedgerows are making slow progress. In one of the patches of sun this morning the tiny leaf budlets on the row of Hornbeam trees lining the footpath at the back of our house showed up as tiny gleams of light. Normally they are among the first of the larger trees to burst into leaf in spring. Come on spring hurry up I need your lovely lime greens to cheer me up!
The Birds
The birds also have realised spring is slow this year. They’re just beginning their courting rituals and gathering nesting materials. The feeders in the garden have been emptying frequently as the feed themselves up ready for mating. Blackbirds have been chasing each other around the garden to establish whose territory it will be. Doves have been billing and cooing on the trees and fences. Sparrows have been flapping their feathers and wings at each other in their courtship dances.
The new Niger feeders have attracted two pairs of siskins and a pair of bull finches. The siskins are quite rare around here. 
Mr B watching the proceedings
Mrs B raiding the moss for her nest
This pair of Black birds has been ripping up the moss covering the stones on the little stream. Mrs B is making a nest somewhere in the Euonymus bush covering the fence. There’s a lidless brown betty teapot tied up, spout downwards in the bush. I haven’t attempted to investigate yet as to where the nest is. We’ve had several nests in previous years but the cat prowling about always scared them away. A nesting thrush in one of the ivy covered fences had its nest vandalised by crows one year. With poor old Simba no longer with us we are ‘cat less’ for the first time for many a year. Maybe Mr and Mrs B will manage a brood of blackbird chicks this year. Well, that is if the magpie that has already spotted her going in and out of the shrub leaves her alone.
It’s cold again to day. Yesterday the temperature managed a respectable 17 degrees. Today and tomorrow those weather people are suggesting slow showers once more. Can we sack them and get a new set of forecasters in???
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