Wild-life Garden Chapter 26: March 25th

I explained in my last post that we were away for the second week in March, in Poolewe. Every puddle seemed to have croaking frogs and spawn. When we got home, sure enough the two blobs of frogspawn in the pond had become half a dozen. Today there are at least eight, and much croaking.

Frogspawn time

I suppose about 1% of the eggs make it to adulthood. I think mature breeders are in their second year. One hazard in this Edinburgh garden is mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos). I love to see them on my patch, but they are a bit much of a good thing for the small pond. They devour water weeds, eat tadpoles and leave far too much nitrogen in droppings. But aren't they splendid. One year there were ducklings for 24 hours. I don't know if they got away to somewhere safer. Cats and foxes are a bit much for a town garden too.

Colourful visitors

We have lots of daffodils, of course. Most of them are jolly garden centre varieties. But this one is a genuine Narcissus pseudonarcissus, such as William Wordsworth and Robert Herrick  immortalised. It was bought from a specialist supplier. On no account should you dig up wild flowers.

Wild daffodil

The primroses, Primula vulgaris, were grown from seed by an old friend. They have flourished for twenty years on this spot, and long may they continue. Occasionally a pink bloom appears, for they hybridise with neighbouring primulas; but these are removed before seeding.

Primroses

In the hedge the hawthorns are still the only plants whose buds have burst into leaf.

The hedge

The wren is still hopping around inspecting nesting sites, and today I saw the first bumble bee of the year. Spring is so exciting!

My Wild-life Garden Chapter 25: March 21st

My little computer has been being mended (the on-off switch was broken) and my desk-top computer told me it was having cookie problems. So I have got behind-hand with this chronicle. Expect a few posts in quick succession as I try to catch up.

March 1st seemed like winter. Sometimes there was ice on the pond and only the dock seemed to be growing. But I saw a swirl in the pond as I approached, and there was a frog, Rana temporaria, diving out of sight as I approached. I think it is safe to assume that this one spent the winter hibernating in the mud at the bottom of our pond. He seemed lonely, and disappeared after a day or two.

But he cannot have been very lonely, for a week later, on March 8th, there was a blob of frogspawn.

The first frogspawn of the year: March 8th

I previous years the spawn and tadpoles have struggled with predators. I have seen a grey heron, Ardea cinerea, catch and swallow three adult frogs in ten minutes. To give some cover I put bamboo poles over a small portion of the pond.

Another time a pair of mallard, Anas platyrynchus, ate every single tadpole and blob of spawn. Some books say they are vegetarian; this is a good example of how you should observe, not just read books. I put in my little baby-path pond as a haven from ducks, only to find a female mallard sitting in it, with about three inches clearance all round.

The baby-bath pond, with crannies for mini-beasts

Last year I put an anti-duck net over the little pond. So I was surprised that the tadpoles in it seemed to have disappeared. When I conducted an exhaustive search I discovered a pair of very fat newts. It's tough out there. I have now taken to putting a little spawn in a tank. Ideally some frogs will survive and many will be eaten. In the wild this is what happens. In the small,artificial environment of a garden one might have a total wipe-out - which seems to be what happened to the toads, Bufo bufo, about five years ago.

One of the many reasons I like my hedge (a row of shrubs, not a genuine boundary) is the chance to observe the plants closely in all seasons. Just now it is buds. The common hazel, Corylus avellana, has very little buds. On the beech, Fagus sylvatica, the buds are long, narrow, sharp spears. On the ash, Fraxinus excelsior, the buds are stikingly black. And so on. One of the hawthorn bushes, Crataegus monogyna was already breaking into green leaf on March 1st, way ahead of the others.

I guess the birds are already sparring for territories and mates, and looking for nesting sites. We have a lot of building work going on next door, so there may be fewer suitable sites this year. But I did see a wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, searching various piles of sticks and thickets.

One of the places that the wren inspected

I have read that the male shows the female half a dozen possible nesting sites before she picks one. I don't think we have ever been picked, though I have seen a male searching in previous years. I also saw six male blackbirds, Turdus merula, hopping round twittering and darting at each other. A single brown female was peacefully watching.