Feb-hurray and the March of Spring

Well, what a gloomy winter we've emerged from! Not exactly cold nor wet enough to be truly dreich; but persistently cloudy with mizzle [drizzle for those not familiar with Scots - which proudly claims to have over 100 words for rain]. Generally, a rather unpleasant start to the year - weatherwise. I noted in my nature journal that on February 12th we saw the sun for the first time in about four weeks. Turns out we weren't the only ones as the BBC ran a full story about how people in Aberdeen hadn't seen the sun for 6 weeks! I think the only time I feel faintly British is when discussing the intricacies of the islands erratic weather.

From the end of January until early February the neighbourhood foxes were in a romantic mood; with the vixens screaming in both the evenings and mornings, encouraging the males to mate with them. If you've never heard it, I recommend Googling it as it a highly unusual sound! It often sounds very human-like...and it is quite unnerving and unsettling. I don't know if I'm alone in this, but sometimes I have to remember that animals do make sounds [they are just often either out of the realm of our hearing range; or they do it when we're not around]. Foxes, squirrels and toads [to name but a few] seem to make completely different noises to how I expect them to make, given the size of the animal and the shape of their face/mouth.

The difference between regular and giant crocuses

Armies of snowdrops appeared in the front garden [albeit a rather disorganised band], thrusting up between flowerpots and cracks in the paving slabs. These were soon followed the Cadbury's mini egg colour composition of crocuses - taking advantage of a week of warmer weather.

I confess that until recently I was not a big fan of spring. The flowers that are out at this time of year all appeared to be the same colours [white, yellow or purple] and while the trees burst into vibrant green leaves, they all seemed the same colour - compared to the different colours which become more apparent later in the year. Spring felt too bright, too much. Now though, after having several long, gloomy winters I 've come to really appreciate the bulbs and the bright splotches of colour after so many grey days. And I really try to remember to make an effort to not only buy, but plant plently of colourful bulbs in autumn!

Daffodils are blooming in the front and back gardens; the taller standard variety and the smaller tete-a-tete. There's definitely some that have popped up in areas I know I didn't plant them, so I can only assume that some of the local squirrel population took matters into their own paws.

Speaking of paws...the squirrels are reverting to old territories and habits; they are decidedly less 'friendly' to each other than last month and some of them have already started moulting their winter coat!

We keep finding bumble bees and honey bees resting on our front door mat [south facing, so full sun]. I was watching an interesting video about bees emerging early on in the year: basically, if you see a bee and its sort of dragging its front legs rather than walking on them - chances are it is a queen who has recently woken up from hibernation. The best thing to do is to gently pick her up and place her on a flower [dandelions are great for this, but really any non-double headed plant] so she can feed on the sweet nectar.

I've been a bit disappointed that we've not had any visitors to our bee hotel or ladybird tower. However, it turns out that they actually don't really require des-res living arrangements and are perfectly happy living in a bamboo cane trellis [below].

"If I fits, I sits"

The sparrows have started nest building already; with the males hoicking beakfuls of mosses out of the back lawn, while the females queue up on the fence to grab a bite of the new buds of the ceanothus bush next door. It's a bit like a saturday shopping trip at your local mall.

Saw some curious new behaviour by a local magpie the other day. I'd thrown out some pieces of bread [that had gone off] and this individual flew down and started snacking. Then I noticed that for every one or two pieces it ate, it would stash a third. For the third piece, it would grab it in its bill and literally stab it into the ground. It would then proceed to find a beakful of moss and place this over the hole. I know jays are known for this stashing behaviour [particularly of nuts, which is super useful for woodland regeneration], but magpies? They are super smart and do appear to observe the squirrels [who do a version of this stashing technique for peanuts]. Unfortunately, the squirrels must also have been observing the magpies as we have witnessed them stealing from the magpie stashes!

Magpie stash [left], Fox stash [right]

I've been giving the front wildflower patch its annual tidy: cutting down all the flower stalks, weeding out all the enroaching grasses and making sure everything has enough space. As it has been such a mild winter, there are loads of plants already up, such as these three below. There also going to be plenty of vetch, clover and some currently unidentifiable plant. There is definitely less ox-eye daisy this year! The soil was lovely and warm and full of worms and wee beasties. I'm excited to see what's going to flower this year!

Lupin [palmate leaves], Teasel [darker basal leaves form a rosette shap and are flush to the ground], Red Campion [bright green, spoon-shaped leaves]

Further signs spring is on its way in the back garden, with the camellia bursting into flower [left] and furry catkins appearing on the willow whips [right].