Tuesday 4 March 2014

Sunny March Day

A lovely day here in South Wales. Out in the garden looking for signs of Spring. 
 Poppy is enjoying the sun too.





Last week the first batch of spawn appeared in the pond. I had seen quite a few frogs around for a few days but only one batch.  Not a very good picture I'm afraid. 


Yesterday there were several frogs in there but couldn't see them very well as they didn't surface. Managed one picture of a pair that I thought were going to surface but changed their mind. Perhaps I scared them off. 
Still no more spawn today.  Last year there were 10 or 11 batches.  Time yet I suppose. I have also seen 2 newts in there on several occasions over the last week. 


Spring flowers are starting to open and the first bees are taking advantage of the heather and getting their first nectar of the season.  Difficult to see but there is a bee there in the centre of the photo. 

Crocuses are open in the sunshine around my little cherry tree.


Other flowers

Muscari (grape hyacinths) 

Daffodils and primroses

Celandine

This is my plum tree. Don't know what the name of it is but it has very small sweet yellow plums. It doesn't produce fruit every year and I think it might be because it flowers so early.  If it is cold there will be no insects around to pollinate it so I think that is why it fails.  As I saw quite a few bees around today so it might be a successful year. 

Close up of plum blossom

It is starting to look like snow underneath the tree as the petals fall. 

Several birds around on my feeder this past week.  Great tits, bluetits, greenfinches, robins and chaffinches. Also feeding on the ground I have seen blackbirds, dunnocks, starlings, jackdaws and wood pigeons, to name but a few. 

3 comments:

Donna said...

Poppy looks like she is enjoying the sun! Looking at your garden makes me eager for spring to arrive here. I wonder if the plum tree needs another in the area for pollination? We had a few in another house and when we bought them, they nursery people said you needed to have 2 of them in order for them to produce fruit. They did not have to be the same kind of plum tree, just a plum tree.

Sheila Khan said...

I don't think there needs to be another tree Donna. We had been here for years and it didn't produce any fruit and then for a few years there was so much until last year when there was none.

Anonymous said...

I am so tired of winter. I will send you a photo taken from my front porch on Monday. This has been a doozy with over 30 days of extreme cold. Your photos are the only breath of spring I will see for a very long time. Poppy is absolutely beautiful.