Spring has sprung

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Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Funny how one specific thing just seems to turn the season for us :D

It's Spring here too :) Sunny day, after waking up to a white world yesterday, but every wee bird out there is singing away and they're flying in pairs too.

M
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I think it's slightly sad that, by the end of summer, I've got fed up with the constant "chiff chaff, chiff chaff, chiff chiff chiff chat" song :(



Why are they doing that Mum? :)


:D "Just practicing" :D

Blackbirds, by the end of Summer I am so ...I can't find the word...upset, angry, angsty, frustrated, annoyed....with their frantic calls because the magpies herrie their nests. That heartbreaking ear piercing cheepcheepcheepcheepcheepcheepcheepcheep, gets to me every year.
I want to choke the magpies and I want the blackies to be cleverer about where they nest.
I know, it's just nature, but still.
 
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TLM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 16, 2019
3,092
1,624
Vantaa, Finland
You haven't heard much yet wait until swans and cranes start to shout their displeasure ... ;)
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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Exmoor
Watched a pair of buzzards doing their courtship display the other day right over my house.
They were also being mobbed by a few crows. It was amazing to watch.
That's always a sign of spring for me.
 
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dwardo

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 30, 2006
6,451
475
46
Nr Chester
Feels like the longest Winter ever so glad its finally springing. Ramsons in everything before long :happy:
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Today is the 73rd of January. The opaque frost is 1/2 way up my windows.
That means that it's damn cold outside. A thermometer would only be an insight into the obvious.
Good thing that I'm not trying to live in a tipi.
 
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Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
1,981
975
Canada
Starlings have been singing away happily for a few days now. Personally, I dread this a bit as the snow's going to melt ... but I only dread it a bit. I am a cool weather plant.
 
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Wander

Native
Jan 6, 2017
1,418
1,983
Here There & Everywhere
Watched a pair of buzzards doing their courtship display the other day right over my house.
They were also being mobbed by a few crows. It was amazing to watch.
That's always a sign of spring for me.

Reminds me of something I saw a couple of weeks ago whilst going for a walk across the Elmley marshes - a pair of marsh harriers flying and flirting with each other and then suddenly a peregrine cut like a scythe between them (well, it looked like it was between them from my angle) after something.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Sunny now hours later but the ice on my window still has not melted away.

I don't believe that it takes any energy to fly on a windy day.
The local Ravens are like black sailboats in the sky. They fly just for fun and to show off.

Long term average, the Rufous (males) hummingbirds should appear on the 3rd Saturday in April.
Very aggressive and territorial, they literally fly in your face, 3-4 inches from your nose and give you a loud buzz.

No Canada geese yet. We usually hear them coming before we see them.
Watch for a while and sure enough, one or more extroverted birds will flip over and fly on their backs.
I've been able to clock them in synch with my truck.
Loafing along, following a road, cruising at 70kph.
Stroking hard, really working at it? 90 kph.

The coyotes and foxes are very careful not to mix it up with adult Canada geese.
Eggs and chicks? Yes but at high risk.
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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Exmoor
Went out for a bimble yesterday avoiding all humans! Picked a whole bunch of wild garlic and made pesto and a wild garlic omelette. Yummy ....Spring is here!
 
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dwardo

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 30, 2006
6,451
475
46
Nr Chester
Went out for a bimble yesterday avoiding all humans! Picked a whole bunch of wild garlic and made pesto and a wild garlic omelette. Yummy ....Spring is here!

Love garlic, love eggs but together? No, sure not. There has to be somewhere thats off-limits to garlic, surely!
 

Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,520
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65
Exmoor
Love garlic, love eggs but together? No, sure not. There has to be somewhere thats off-limits to garlic, surely!

I added a bit of cheese in the middle, what my mother used to call a stuffed omelette. Very tasty I can assure you. Give it a try, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Nothing except sweet things are off limit to wild garlic. It's a milder taste than garlic from bulbs. I often put a couple of torn up leaves in a salad too. In fact I prefer wild garlic to normal garlic.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,981
7,759
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
The weather was so mild here that the woodpeckers were hammering away in late January! Yet, for some reason I cannot fathom, the frogs were about two weeks later spawning in our pond than usual.

Just come back from the wood for lunch; it was so peaceful down there I wish I'd taken my lunch with me :(
 

bobnewboy

Native
Jul 2, 2014
1,292
847
West Somerset
The only woodpeckers I see are the ones that feast on the fat blocks on the bird feeder in front of the living room window.
Beautiful birds, and so brightly coloured just now.

Aye, particularly lovely when they bring their young to the feeders - fluffy, brightly coloured and begging from their parents. Really charming :) . We’re lucky to have a pair visit all the way through the winter, and very welcome they are too.

My personal favourites though are the goldfinches. We usually have groups of two or more at a time on the Niger seed feeders through the year, competing with the gangs of long tailed tits. Colour and comedy in the winter!
 
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