Wildlife highlights: Common Frogs and Lesser Celandines
You will be pleased to hear that after the last post we now have lots of frogspawn, so that's a relief! I needn't have worried with the amount of frogs that have visited our pond, possibly as many as 40 at one time! I have put up a few videos for you to see. They're worth seeing as I have never seen so many frogs in one place in my life! Here is one of the videos to wet your appetite.
The correct date is 24/02/22
I went out for my regular 'drive' up and down the garden on Thursday and I noticed movement as I approached the pond, which I was sure were frogs. I did my usual sweep of the garden and then came back round keeping still. At first I spotted about three frogs and as they got braver more and more of them appeared. I have worked out that because my chair doesn't have the appearance of a person to creatures I can sometimes get a really close view, but as soon as I move they're off. This left me with a dilemma as I was starting to get cold, but I didn't want to disturb them. Eventually I just had to move carefully and they all dived for cover. We then set up the trail camera in the evening to see what would happen. It was a great encounter and definitely my wildlife highlight of the year so far!
I also had a lovely walk to the Watercolour Lagoons and on the way it was great to see some flowering Lesser Celandines. Many flowers have now started to appear heralding spring, which has definitely lifted my spirits! According to the The Natural History of Selbourne by the early naturalist Gilbert White in the 18th century, observed that Celandines started to flower around the 21st February. Even today this is still pretty accurate, give or take a day or two, and given the trend of spring starting earlier due to global warming, it goes to show that the picture is far more complex when it come to the triggers of flowering plants. One things for sure on a sunny day the yellow flash of colour really makes you smile! I think though a bit of extra info makes watching wildlife all the more enjoyable especially with amazing history like that written well over 200 years ago!
Head over to the videos and gallery page for more wildlife antics!
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