Still No Frogspawn - 12/04/2016

No signs of any frogs so far,

and the chances of frogspawn

now looking very slim. 

There's been more rain here and so

the lawn remains somewhat soggy.

However, the grass seed I put

down as now started to grow:

It looks like the birds

didn't eat it all after all!

The Bug Hotel still open for business:

The feeding stations on the

Acer tree are being well used:

In particular, I've lost count of how

many times I've had to refill the

Sunflower Hearts feeding station:

The Goldfinches are 

never away from it now.

On one occasion I counted

seven of them on the Acer tree. 

We added another station too:

This one is closer to the house
 and gives us an even better
view of the Goldfinches
from the kitchen window.

For the first time too,

we had Long Tailed Tits visit.

I think they were looking
for somewhere to nest.

All the rain we've had means

the ponds are well topped up.

I wonder if any frogs
are hiding in Frogitat:

The Monkey Bird Bath

looks more like a Bird Toilet!

The pond plants are doing okay:

Lots of new growth to be seen:

The Yellow Flag Iris have

started to grow again:

Sunshine at Last - 25/03/2016

Finally we had some sun today

and the puddles dried up.

The grass (whats left of it),

took a good hammering this winter.

All the rain has left the lawn

extremely waterlogged.

My Wife planted some new grasses
and hopefully by Summer they'll be bushy:

No frogspawn in the pond yet,

not sure I'll get any this year now.

There are still some tadpoles

 in the pond from last Summer.

They have now started
to grow their back legs.

Nothing to report from Pond Project #1:

The Bug Hotel is starting to look weathered:

I did spot odd one or two creepy crawlies

 moving around in it when I checked today.

I added some twigs to the top of

the bug hotel for the birds to use

when they start building their nests:

Spent the afternoon forking the lawn:

After what seemed like forever, 

when I'd finished grafting I

put down a load of grass seed.

We'll wait now

and see if new grass appears.

Evening in the Garden - 02/7/2015

I spent all my time relaxing in the garden this evening.  It had rained in the afternoon but by the time I'd returned home from work the sun had come out and everything had started to dry out.

After tea I sat and watched the tadpoles for twenty minutes.  Most seem to have developed back legs now and will soon begin turning into little froglets.  I've not bothered taking photos of them just yet as they spend most of the time moving around between the elodea crispa or shooting to the surface for air before dashing back down to the bottom of the pond.  I'm still quite surprised just how many tadpoles there are too, I thought that most of them would have been eaten by the newts by now.

Speaking of newts, I still see one of them when I go out late in the evening with my torch.  I'm not sure where the other went but I spend ages watching them stalking in the pond.  

Both the frogs are still around and the smaller one seems to still favour pond project #1, the smaller of the two ponds and is there most evenings.

After checking up on the tadpoles, I just sat in a chair and watched the birds feed in the Acer behind the pond.

The pond plants are doing good right now and the elodea crispa has started taking over the pond again providing good cover for the tadpoles whilst they are developing into froglets.

The plants my Wife put around the pond have flourished unlike the heather that we originally planted there when I first installed the pond.  The black dragon plants have started to multiply so we may need to dig a few of those additional ones up and move them elsewhere.

Pond Project #2

The Bug Hotel

My latest addition

 to the garden was a water

station for birds and insects.

It was one of my activities
for the 30 Days Wild Challenge
back at the beginning of June.

It looked like this at first:

However, I disliked the look of it so much

that yesterday I replaced it with a large

ceramic cat bowl, filled the bottom with

gravel and added some pebbles.

I think it looks much better now :-)

Pond Project #1

A selection of
flowers from the garden:

View from my chair this evening

Pond Activity - 03/4/2015

Having had proof that the frogspawn

is developing, I have to wait patiently

for the tadpoles to emerge.

I just hope and pray that 

the snails don't eat it all first.

I feel like getting rid of the snails, 

but that would be interfering with nature.

As you can see, they're

really getting to work on it.

I'm thinking of getting some new pond plants

 but I haven't decided what to get yet.

Whatever plants I do decide to get,
they'll definitely be native ones.

The pond water is murky at the moment.

The water will soon clear.

The black dragon plants we added
last year are doing okay and appear
to have grown a little.

The Armeria maritima
plants are doing well too.

The Yellow Flag Iris multiplied

 in the smaller wildlife pond.

Soon the Yellow Flags
will dwarf this little pond.