The heron is catching so many of the poor frogs that today for the first time I tried shoeing him off – just to give them a chance of enjoying their conubials in peace for a while. But to no avail; three times I chased him, and each time he was back within half an hour. The ducks are also spending nearly all their time on the pond at the moment – they are very sweet the way they sleep on the water with their heads tucked under their wings.

Then this evening there was one mature red deer hind and a yearling – presumably her offspring from last year grazing on the back lawn. Hopefully they will keep clear of the daffodils which are now coming into full bloom. As soon as R saw them he ran to get the anti-tick liquid for the cats – it is about that time of year again.

The picture is a bit of a cheat as I didn’t manage to get a photo of the heron today. As you can probably tell from the lush vegetation, that one was taken in the correct location, but in June last year.

That was not all on the wildlife front today. There were four baby squirrels and about 30 assorted small birds in the feeding area this morning. Then when we opened the front door, R thought for a moment he had squished a frog which had been hiding under the sill. But in fact it was fine and very lively and I had to pick it up to stop it going to have an investigate of the hall. A very handsome chap all in green and gold and obviously hiding from our next visitor who was a heron back on the pond.

Then most of this afternoon there were two buzzards circling the house and ‘ki ki’ng at each other. I hope they are thinking of mating; which reminds me that we need to put a bird of prey box up, as there used to be owls and buzzards nested here before the old box fell to pieces

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 frogs around and our heron briefly made an appearance the other day, obviously he would like to welcome the ex-tadpoles to adulthood as well…

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 last night there were a variety of amphibians, two frogs locked in carnal enjoyment, several newts, and a large toad who tried to make a snack of one of the newts. Also water boatmen, bees in the heather, and the latest arrival – a peacock butterfly

So looking at the dates on ‘Seasonwatch’ spring in Lochgoilhead is almost exactly two weeks later this year than last year with the frogs arriving in our pond on the same day this year as they left on last year. This sort of fits in with the dates the flowers are coming out as well.

One end of the pond is now completely full of frog spawn, and the heron is going nuts. I actually should correct that and say ‘herons’ because on the web cam this morning I saw one heron being chased off by another one. Obviously this pond is prime territory.

The ducks have also been back and the female sat on the little island for a while, but I don’t think they will breed here because they are very wild and fly off every time we walk past. Probably just as well because I don’t see ducklings and cats being entirely compatible…

So I made a video in honour of the heron… The featured image on this post I called ‘Four Herons’. The first two are the real heron and his reflection. The second two are the plastic heron (for scaring real herons off – not very successful obviously!) and his reflection…

But this morning I was proved at least partially wrong. I went for a walk round the waterfalls and it was surpassingly foul at the bottom of the hill, a sort of mixed rain, slush and hail with a stiff breeze blowing it right into my face. By half way up it had actually turned to snow and was starting to lie – and it was right there that I saw the year’s first frog spawn in the stream by the side of the path. Remarkably, this is one day earlier than when I saw it for the first time last year.

So we can expect our froggy friends to turn up in the pond soon – although their nemesis Mr Heron has already taken up position and may have already had a couple of early arrivals. Perhaps an example of ‘the early frog gets caught by the heron’.

He seems quite fearless and let me get some close shots of him. Not sure what he would make of the cats – although at more than a meter tall I don’t think they would be much of a threat to him.

The pool is so clear that you can watch them swimming along underwater. This morning I stood still to watch one, and as it swam up to the bank – I could see that it was not one, but two frogs, locked together in connubial bliss.

There are also a lot of flowers poking through in the garden – everywhere we look things are waking up. Of course this did not stop it deciding to have a good half an hour’s hailstorm this afternoon….

It caught four before slowly flapping away over the fields.  I am pleased that it is finding food and it is nice to see it on the pond – but I am sort of sorry about the frogs – they are such interesting creatures and we are not going to have much of a wildlife pond without them – to say nothing of all the midge larvae that they will eat.  Hopefully the heron is only catching a small proportion and we will get a good crop of tadpoles.