The wildlife are now back in force. Last night R and I watched our pine marten (or one of our pine martens?) eating nuts on the bird table for about 10 minutes. Then suddenly he shot off into the woods. We realized why a few seconds later when a large badger emerged under the fence […]
A new member seems to have joined Team Donich today. Off and on since we have lived here, we have seen a great spotted woodpecker on the nuts, but they have always been very shy and elusive. Now over the last few days, a juvenile has started joining us, not feeding off the nuts, but […]
Very lovely views over Beinn Bheula tonight… Actually not a bad day in general. The new shed is finished and I started to move stuff in there this afternoon. While I was moving some pots a large frog jumped out and let me look at him for a while. There’s also a lot of smaller […]
R and I spent some time looking at the spring residents on our pond the other day. Of course we have our heron (mentioned many times before) but also two ducks which I thought at one point were thinking about making a nest. The video shows some nice reflections as they come into land. Then […]
I was walking down to the summerhouse this morning when I heard a familiar burbling sound coming from the pond. Down near the stream the water was surging about and sure enough the frogs had arrived and were (not to put too fine a point on it) “getting it on” – right at the point […]
I’m afraid it doesn’t look like we are getting our frog orgy in the pond this year – I suspect due to the activities of our heron. There are some frogs (and newts) because I disturbed some while I was gardening today – but obviously the presence of the heron is a little off putting […]
Yesterday I added a comment to the ‘SeasonWatch’ section of this site to the effect that spring was a long way behind where it was this time last year. I based this on the fact that in early March 2014 the narcissi were out under the apple trees in the garden, whereas this year they […]
Another beautiful morning and our friend the heron (or at least a similar looking heron) is back on the pond. Interestingly – I read somewhere that frogs are not much seen between the breeding season (which here in Argyll was in March) and late July when they re-emerge (not sure why this is). I had […]
We now have a seriously large number of frogs coming out of hibernation and making the most of the spring (to put it politely). There is frog spawn in large quantities in the ditches, and every time I walk past our pool I can see the ripples as they swim for cover (don’t blame them […]
The heron arrived at 7am this morning and was not deterred by either R setting off for town or the post van arriving. He (or she) just sat incredibly still (nothing beats herons for immobility) until suddenly the beak struck out. At first I thought there were fish in the pool after all – but […]
