I've been feeling funny lately, and I wasn't sure why. Then, after giving it much thought, I decided on a likely cause. The joys of spring. I first heard of 'the joys of spring' as a child when watching that well-known '80s cartoon, Willo the Wisp. The one with Kenneth Williams as Evil Edna the television, Mavis Cruet the fairy and Arthur the orange caterpillar, who lived together in Doyley Woods. If you didn't watch it yourself, maybe your kids did. Anyway, one of the characters was a small, yellow bird, Twit. In spring, his character changed. He became happy - even romantic - and began to construct a nest in a tree. Nestbuilding isn't really my thing, but I've felt my spirits uplifted in the past few weeks. There's so much to look forward to in the coming months... Already, you could see butterflies on a warm day. Many will have spent winter hidden away in crevices or outbuildings but will come out to feed when it's warm enough. Keep an eye out for familiar favourites like red admirals, peacocks and commas. Though the bad weather that much of the UK suffered doesn't seem long ago, frogs and toads are plopping into ponds up and down the country. Listen out for the croaking and then watch their courtship activities. Their spawn can survive cold snaps, so it's not too early for them. In a matter of weeks, bluebells will be blooming and primroses peeping up from the woodland floor. They'll be greeted by butterflies and bees eager for the nectar they provide. After a long, grey winter, I'm always drawn to flowers and blossom.
In Japan, sakura - cherry blossom - plays a big part in culture and hanami parties are held under the trees to celebrate. Cherry blossom forecasts are even issued! It's a shame we don't do something similar here... why not have a bluebell party to mark the occasion? I'm almost as drawn to new spring leaves as to flowers. Something about the bright lime green you see when the sun shines through them symbolises spring and new growth perfectly for me. Everything is... alive! Then, not long after the bluebells are out and the young leaves sprout, there are more technicolour treats to look forward to: the first damselflies, large reds, emerge from our ponds and rivers and add splashes of bright scarlet to our landscape. They live short, but eventful, lives. From roughly the end of April, dragonflies follow the damselflies' example and crawl out of the water. They creep up a plant stem, climb out of their skins and fly off for a few months of fighting, mating and mosquito-munching. Longer term, there are the pleasures of summer to look forward to... those long, warm days, warm evenings spent in the garden with bats flying overhead... and, Twit aside, I haven't even mentioned birds yet! There are swallows, nightingales, house martins, not forgetting hobbies, warblers... That's why I'm enjoying spring.
Has spring gone 'boing!' for you?
Agree with the wonders of spring in the uk after a very long hard winter, for the birds as well as ourselves. To see the big birds, rook, jacksaw, and magpie, carrying their twigs, offering them to chosen mate, with acceptance, or rejection, spring is here, to see 2 of my three small ponds become a splashing orgy with multiple frogs heads bobbing out to look around, a week of it so far, with a huge amount of frogspawn in both ponds, the pond with goldfish in completely ignored, just hope a late frost doesnt kill the spawn as it did last year. Cant see anysign of nest building with my other garden birds, none of them rare or unusual, being sparrows, great and blue tits, mr and mrs blackbird, just ocassionally long tailed tits and jenny wren, at times the collared doves will visit for the seed, also a huge wood pigeon perched on my small bird basket.
The field at the back is where the big birds live, rook,jackdaw,magpie who of course will come into the garden if hungry, flying above the field hawk, and ocassionally heron, and flights of geese, with the fantastic aerial display of the swifts later in spring-summer
This gives pleasure to me and many others, but of course there is a sad side to spring, when chicks are taken by predators, whilst gardening l have seen the magpie destroy and take the blackbird chicks, whilst the crow goes after the magpie chicks, birds of prey, along with mammals will take chicks for the food for their own chicks, that is the cruel side of nature, survival. Which brings me to cats, who the rspb tell us take a huge amount of garden birds, along with developments and loss of habitat, neither of these predators are really about natures ways, or survival. But, shock, horror, l do have two cats, one is 12yrs and have never once seen it with birds or mice, just the ocassional moth or spider, the other does hunt and kill ocassionally, not prolific hunter, she gets shouted at, and does understand, also two collars with 4 bells sewn on to act as a deterrent to her and warning to birds, not fullproof specially with slow chicks, but helps a bit, recently l discovered there is a cat collar called the liberator which has a built in sonic type device, which warns birds of approaching danger, again not fullproof, but if it decreases by 50per cent or more its worthwhile. Its not cheap but worth it, the marketing for this collar is minimul it seems, l have only just discovered it, seeing the odd ones on ebay, but found it is retailed by a liverpool company for 13 pound, found on the internet as the `liberator collar` hoping it will become more commonly used.