The croaking chorus of spring

A good sign that spring is on the way is when you hear the chorus of frogs in your pond.

Counted 8 frogs sat in the plants and weed with a couple croaking away this afternoon.

A large amount of frogspawn has also appeared. Although you can find forgspawn from as early as January, typically in my pond, it’s March time.

Do you know the difference between frog and toad spawn? Frog is normally clumped together, whilst toad is strung in a line.

Whilst tempting to move spawn from a pond to somewhere else, it is not advisable as you could introduce contaminants from one pond to anthoer (diseases, invasive species etc.)

This time of year is great to just sit and watch the pond life and nature take its course.

30 Days Wild 2022 – Day 1 – Pond Update

Another year on and 30 Days June is here again. My posts have been seriously lacking in between and hope to fix that going forward. Though I would start this years 30 Days of June with an update on my pond.

Since building the pond a few years ago it has become established and a focal point for wildlife in the garden. The Heron still appears and can only look at the all you can eat Heron buffet without the eating part due to the bamboo cage. Most of the lashing had to be replaced on the cage as the twine I first used had degraded, but it is holding strong. The cage provides a lot of nooks and places for spiders to hide and build their webs on feasting on the flies and insects that visit the pond.

Frogs have visited and their offspring have become tadpoles which hide well from the fish within the stones and pebbles forming the slope at the end of the pond offering any animal that wanders in an easy way out of the water.

The plants are thriving well and providing a source of shade and stability to the water. The Iris has grown from a small garden centre purchased plant to a large feature and looks like it might actually flower this year.

Having a pond in a garden no matter how big, is a great way of attracting wildlife of all sizes and worth while investment of time in making it and sitting and watching it flourish.

30 Days Wild 2021 – Day 21 – Nature Walk – Wood Mouse

The Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) or Long Tailed Field Mouse is a widespread and common mammal that you might spot on a walk or in your garden.

Growing between 8cm and 10cm long and weighing between 23g and 25g, the typical Wood Mouse lives for around 1 year.

A female can have a litter of 4-8 and up to 6 times a year, which makes for a lot of mice! The circle of life though means that the Wood Mouse has a lot of predators such as birds of prey, foxes etc. One of the reasons that they are mainly nocturnal, although you may be lucky enough to spot one in the daytime.

They feed mainly on seeds from trees such as oak, beech etc and will change to berries and fruits when available in the later months of the year.

These two scamps (in the picture) were in my compost bin making a nice nest. Unfortunately for them I needed the bin contents, so they were relocated to some nice woodland to make a new home.

30 Days Wild – 2021

June is a great month to get out and enjoy nature. The weather is getting better (fingers crossed) and the days are getting longer with more time to spend outside.

Every year I like to sign up to the 30 Days Wild with the Wildlife Trust and do something outside each day.

If you haven’t yet signed up for 30 Days Wild there is still time. What activities will you be doing over June?

Camp Outside – 30 Days Wild (Day 25)

Camoing outside is on of those things that not everyone likes to do, however until you have tried give it a go.

In the current climate though it may not be possible with lockdown restrictions to go to a campsite and pitch your tent. But that does not mean you can’t camp out in your own garden.

If you dont have a tent a den will work when we have good weather. A sheet to make a tent out of (make sure its not raining).

If you dont have a garden, you can still camp indoors and make a den getting an experience before you have a change to go outside and do it for real at a camp site.

Camping is a great way of switching off from the mainstream and getting back to some basics. You can listen to the birds and insects chirping at Dawn whilst watching some sunrises and also at Dusk.

Have a look at https://www.scouts.org.uk/the-great-indoors/the-great-indoors-weekender/ where the scouts are running a weekend for everyone 11th and 12th July. You don’t have to be in Scouting to take part either and there is a badge you can buy afterwards from the Scout Shop.