Spring flowers and other signs of Spring

Time to think about real flowers and bees after yesterdays post.  Lots of spring flowers in the garden now. Looks so lovely after the dull brown winter garden.  The primroses always put on a good show and provide nectar for the early bees.  The bees found their first food on my plum tree which I wrote about in an earlier post. That has lost its blossom now but looking forward to lots of plum, I hope.

The primroses spread everywhere, these are on my rock garden but they also grow in my lawn and are so many different colours.  At the top of the photo are blue muscari which are also very proliferative. 

 Lots of different daffodils but don't know the names of the varieties.  This one is a favourite and has several flowers on each stem. 

This double one is lovely but sadly the flower is so heavy it soon falls over and gets eaten by the slugs

Another favourite is the snake head fritillary, no prize for guessing the origin of its name.

This little violet is growing in the gravel path but also have them growing in the front lawn.

 Moving on from the flowers there are other signs of Spring in the garden. Below two different ladybirds out of hibernation, spotted by Stuart.  Seven spot red and two spot black. 

 These buds on this conifer look like masses of ladybirds.

Broken egg shell must mean we have newly hatched birds somewhere nearby. These look like pigeon eggs. Found two shells very close together. 

On the right of this photo is a mass of frog tadpoles just about ready to venture further into the pond to look after themselves now they have finished feeding on the spawn jelly. Not many of them will survive so that is why they produce so many every year. 

Seen several newts in the pond again but they are difficult to photograph.If you look carefully centre bottom you might see it. 

And finally after living in this house for 18 years I saw my first hedgehog.  I was specially watching out for him as I spotted what I suspected were hedgehog dropping on the patio and that night he came along sniffing around under the bird feeders.  Must have recently emerged from hibernation.  Hedgehogs like cat food but the problem is if I put it out for them I will be inviting all the neighbourhood cats too. 

Preparing for Spring

That time of the year again to put up the bird nesting boxes (well maybe I am a bit later than usual but hope not too late).  Washed out the old boxes with hot soapy water and rinsed them well.  I found that the nests from last year were full of fleas so I had sprayed them with flea spray a couple of weeks so.  No sign of any today.

I also have three new boxes.  I received one as a free gift for joining the RSPB and I bought a robin/wren box and also a bug box which is apparently good for attracting solitary bees and also for ladybirds to hibernate in.

Stuart helped me by screwing the old boxes closed again after cleaning and held the bug box in place while I tightened the screw.  We have placed it on the fence behind the pond and close to a bush.

We placed the robin box on the fence behind the cotoneaster and winter flowering Jasmine because they like to be hidden from predators which is important as they like an open front box.  It will be sheltered from wind and rain there too and also there will be plenty of insects visiting the bushes in the summer so lots of food for them.

The other 3 boxes need to go higher up in the trees so I will wait for the gardener to come and place those for me in a couple of weeks.

Signs of Spring in the garden:

Snowdrops by the pond

Buds on daffodils should hopefully be open for St David's Day

Crocuses