Frogs active.

 Nearly at the end of January and signs of spring already. Butterbur and Snowdrops in flower, 

daffodils in bud, the first leaves of Cow Parsely and Lords and Ladies showing through.  My garden pond frogs laid three lots of frog spawn last night. I only hope that we do not have any more severe frost to kill it off, as happpened last year.

 

 

 

 

This years Frog Spawn. Photo. John Elliott. Click to enlarge.

An Otter was reported in the flooded stream this morning.

 

Rooks.

Rooks preparing for Spring. Photo. J. Elliott. Click to enlarge

The Rooks that nest in the Horse Chestnut outside my bedroom window are now returning from the night roost over the other side of the A35, and each pair slowly pulls the old nest to bits and drops the unwanted sticks, mainly over my drive. That done they will collect new sticks, breaking them off trees all over the village and start a new nest. The difficult bit is getting the first stick to stay in a fork of the branch where last years nest was built. This has been known to take some weeks in past years, presumably with younger, lesser experienced birds. If a stick does fall it is not picked up, but a new one is gathered. 

 

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