Been to Horsey to see the seals ….hundreds of them on the beach there.
But also two swallows swooping low after their dinner. I love seeing them, cheers me up…summer must be on its way.
Just seen the first swallows of summer!
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Lovely post. How delightful. Swallows and seals 🙂
I get a lot of housemartins here, and love watching them swooping joyfully in the sky. It’s a bit early still so I haven’t seen them yet this year, and come August I love bat watching. The back of my house, with neighbouring properties forms a semi enclosed space, perfect for insect feasting if you’re a bat. Lots of rook too. One young feisty little fellow always sees off the hawk when it’s around, when all the smaller birds give alarm calls and hide the best they can. In the deep of night I regularly hear the owls too. You absolutely cannot beat the joys of nature. It is an ambition of mine to volunteer in nature welfare/conservation and maybe try and start a small second career in that area, and one day, I WILL meet an otter, and swim with a dolphin.
Love & Light _/\_
You stand a pretty good chance of seeing an otter in daylight on one of the reserves on the Somerset Levels, at Westhay or Shapwick. There’s probably a fair amount of online info about which reserve is a good place to start. I live near, and have seen otters on a couple of occasions in daylight on one of the major watercourses.
Chiffchaffs are around, bumblebees and Peacock butterflies are awake and the veg beds are composted, dug over and all ready for planting. In’t life grand?
Indeed. I’m a keen follower of Somerset Wildlife Trust, and so when I relocate further up county rather than my current borders location, I intend to volunteer/get involved.
Hence getting a car/driving license too – handy for more far flung adventures eg the treasures of Dartmoor/Exmoor as well.
Good to hear, up to 4 inches of snow arriving here later 🙁
Two of ‘our’ swallows appeared early Sunday morning, about a week earlier than last year. They nest in neighbour’s outbuilding, and also in the block of garages out back. They spent some time flying round the immediate area, but eventually took up their usual perches on the phone wires, twittering away. There have been three family groups in recent years, so two must be still on their way. I think Swallows are my favourite bird. I love the way they fly. A few years ago, one stunned itself on the sitting room window, and I held it until it recovered and flew off. Just unbelievably attractive birds, but how can anything that light fly all that way?
House Martins appeared on Tuesday, towards noon. I think they are the ones which nest under the eaves on our neighbour’s bungalow.
Spring has sprung in my garden.
It’s very much in urban Nottingham, but a fairly “green” bit of it. Woodthorpe, if anyone knows it.
I get all 4 “common” tit species every day, and local Blackbirds, Wrens, Dunnocks and Sparrows. It’s the Robin’s garden, though, I just own it. He’s so territorial this time of year, scaring away all comers. Recently I’ve had visits from a male Blackcap, Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff on Sunday. I used to get Song Thrush and Green/Bull/Gold/Chaff finches, but get very few finches at all these days. Lord knows why, they’ve just disappeared, and the Sparrow count is down 90% over the last few years, too.
The Blue Tits have shown an interest in my nestbox, but I don’t think it’ll happen this year. There’s a Coal Tit who’s in my garden every day who was gathering moss all day Sunday, his nest can’t be far away.
Total confirmed species count in the garden is 30, including Pheasant(!), Redpoll, Siskin, Redwing, Fieldfare and Sparrow Hawk.
I love this time of year.
I’m where north Bristol shades into South Gloucestershire, and finches are probably the most common bird in our garden, mostly green and gold. One set even built a nest in one of our trees last year, but we never saw any activity there – think it might have been a decoy.
I’m in the South of Gloucestershire, as opposed to South Gloucestershire (don’t get me started . . . ) and was pretty surprised to see housemartins last Sunday when out for a walk. It’s the sort of thing that brings an involuntary grin, like an amazing sunset, or suddenly arriving on a sweeping view.
My bird feeders seem to attract chiefly jackdaws and wood pigeons, but when these thugs aren’t about there are loads of finches (chaff, green and gold), tits and sparrows, and blackcaps, which up to 3 or 4 years ago I’d never seen.
The finches have obviously been brought up to be thrifty – they eschew the expensive black hulled sunflower seeds in favour of the dirt-cheap, husked stripey ones. Or perhaps they take a perverse delight in the mess it all makes.
That is one fine geographical distinction! A really good friend of mine lives in Dursley, so I make it up North to see him every couple of months.
Very definitely spring. The pigeons are back shagging on the fence, and Dottie spent Monday flinging a dead mouse round the garden.
It’s just magical.
What you do in the privacy of your internet history is of no concern of ours.
I really must go to Horsey again soon – it’s been too long. Last time was on a friend’s boat as we cruised the Broads.
I spotted my first bluebells of the season while walking the Best Dog In Norfolk (Official) in the woods on Mousehold yesterday afternoon. Tilly ignored them, but I was delighted. And I saw some more a little while ago while walking back from Lidl along the Wensum.
At the weekend there were butterflies flitting about over the boardwalk through the reed beds near my Mum’s on the Deben Delta.
Spring. Woo-hoo!
Peacock butterflies, that is.
Cruised the broads. Web footed or splayed ?
🙂
Capital B (as in Norfolk Broads), as well you know.
I saw some swallows very recently but to my embarrassment I can’t remember if it was here or during my recent trip to Switzerland.
Think I may have been up a small Alp.
During a countryside walk on Saturday I saw a couple of gorgeous and very fat bumble bees pootling around. They were so big they almost seemed strokeable.
I was on the way to the laundry on Sunday morning saw a pair of copulating tits. A surprising sight that made my morning.
A sight frequently seen from the kitchen window of my bijou council penthouse.
One evening I saw Tracey and Huw getting jiggy wiv it only to see a scant few minutes later Tracey billing and cooing wiv Dai.
Makes one’s tea making activities feel slightly voyeuristic and mists up the lenses of one’s binoculars rather severely.
We had no winter whatsoever down here on the Spanish border, no frost, no bitterly cold days – just (highly unusual)grey day after grey day. The wildlife had no idea what was going on, collared doves copulating in December, rabbits doing what rabbits do best. So much so I do believe spring is actually late especially compared to what I saw last week in the UK – a magnificent riot of vibrant colour and a real feeling of life returning to the countryside.
The swallows , swifts and martins have been back here for a month and this morning the first hoopoe of the year but the plants including the sea of vines all seem to be saying “hold on, winter’s coming”.
For me it’s the return of the swans, the King and Queen of Darwin Park, who arrive usually in April or May, ahead of nesting by one of the lagoons, always the same one. From 2 cygnets two years ago, they had 7 last year, so anyone’s guess this year, but that won’t be for a month or 3 yet, so they are just doing what they do best, shitting and scaring inquisitive dogs. They came about a month ago and will leave late September, sometimes via a road procession to the cathedral Pool, about a mile or so away, with the cygs forming an orderly queue midst the frantically braking traffic.
Is it Darwin Park that sits on the site of the old Victoria Hospital? The very spot that I entered this world – many years ago. Glad to know it hasn’t impacted on the local wildlife.
Just posted Martin Simpson’s ‘Dark Swift and Bright Swallow’ the other day, so won’t do it again. Perfect song for the time of year.
Spring migration in full flow in Dubai. Loads of semi-collared flycatchers and redstarts, plus white-throated robins, tree pipits, black-headed buntings and plenty of warblers. I found the countries 34th white-breasted waterhen the other day and saw a quail today, sat right out in the open on a lawn. I’ve seen lots before but only when I kick them up in long grass.
Yes, spring is springing. A pair of blackbirds is busy building a nest in my euonymus.
Larks. Lots of them singing like mad at early o’clock this morning when I was walking the dog.
Spring, menopause…at my age it’s difficult to tell the difference!