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. 

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.