East Coast Nature Notes Friday 11th May 2012 Southbound

( ”meanwhile” )

( East Coast Nature Notes Friday 27th April 2012 Southbound )

( East Coast Nature Notes Monday 23rd April 2012 Northbound )

A beautiful day that might be the first real day of spring. Blue sky, so sharp that it cut bread through which floated white and very fluffy clouds. A wander down towards the Manor. There the moat was in a state that could be best described as full of mallards. I counted about 30 of them, most of them paired off. A small number of coots, a pair of ( Read more... )

I saw the first snowdrops today. Well not the first. Just the first ones in flower that I have seen this year. About 20 plants in flower outside of the Wetland Trust in Barnes, London. Elsewhere in the news several pairs of male coots were trying to drown each other in very intense and deadly combat in the only bit of open water in the ice covered ( Read more... )

The first dandelion flower has put in an appearance today by the side of the service road by work. Even for a mild winter I would have to say that this plant is rather precocious. What next I wonder?

Every tree is full of birds singing their little hearts out. As long as you can ignore the fact that the music is nothing more than "my tree! my tree!" it's very soothing. In the top corner of the park there is the sound of a male wood pecker banging out his unique song - Ringo Starr eat your heart out. And in the back garden, as I write, making ( Read more... )

I decided to take advantage of some very fine weather this lunchtime to have a brief wander around the local park. The birds were tweeting in the trees. A bold robin (are there any other sorts?) was doing his "look-at-me-" song-and-dance act on a fence. I also saw the first butterfly of the year though not well enough to say what it was - it was ( Read more... )