Daisies! (two) - Spring!

The hill ridge across the loch is almost mauve with the early evening light falling on the snow.

nina, we have sparrow squatters as well – in housemartin nests! On the one hand it's encouraging that the local house sparrow population seems to be growing (we saw no sparrows here for the first few years), and on the other hand it's a bit worrying because they might frighten the house martins off. We 'lost' our eight pairs plus offspring on house martins the year of the Icelandic ash cloud. Last year, one pair occupied a nest. Fingers crossed for this year.

Oops meant

Both nesting boxes have sparrows going in and out.

The plan was when DH made them about 5 yrs ago to hopefully watch a family of tits use one. Neither has ever had eggs in [frown]

The wood pigeons are romancing each other today. I have to laugh because they are so clumsy, and pick branches that don't hold their weight, so they can be heard crashing through the trees on occasion. I love spring

The collar doves are courting again. The bird feeder is quiet, so I assume my neighbour has more enticing seeds in hers. A pair of goldfinch spent a long time on mine yesterday though. In Dundee, my sister's feeders had every kind of finch - siskins, green, gold, chaff and bull.

Uplifting.

Songthrush mornings They were late starting this year. There is a spattering of snow on the ground again this morning. Just a spattering. But the dawn daymark is north of east already and the sun's rays nearly make it to the northwest corner of my bedroom. Love the light mornings.

Huge flakes of snow falling artistically past the window.

A feast for the birds!

Back great,

My bird feeder is greatly in demand today. The dunnock is bak and forth on the seed, the robin on the cheese, the pigeon on anything he can reach, the grat and blue tits on the fatballs and a juvenile male blackbird.

I'm slumming on the orange juice before it goes out of date!

Of course. Maybe it isn't just caffeine my brain needs today!

Even some albumen

Lots of globulin bags and some albumed

Oh wait! There must be because how else would the froglets grow? Hmm. Just like bird eggs then, natural high protein food.

There won't be much meat in those frog eggs yet.

'Our' heron was jabbing away at the bank of the pond this morning. It wasn't a part where the frogspawn is thick, so I wondered if it was trying to 'coax' an adult frog out of the mud. ??
It could have been eating spawn. I couldn't tell from its expression. But it did give me a dirty look for watching it from an upstairs window, before it flew off to the field.

Drove past a flooded valley floor this morning - a beautiful mini-wetland - and saw 5 herons puddling around having brunch. Probably up to their knees in tadpoles.
''Free food'' I thought, as I'd just spent far too much stocking up in the supermarket. Nice and dry though.

I love that collective ' A murder of crows'. It's wonderful. I'm very impressed with our wild crocuses. Every time the snow melts, there they are bright and defiant.

Butty I've only ever seen two Hares. They were sparring in the nearby glen.

Oh Bags crows are so fiesty at this time of the year. Our daffodils are in full bloom. I've added a photo of the Well Boat in my album. For some reason it's at number five. The fry, from the fish farm on the hill, are transported by helicopter to the boat, after which, they are taken elsewhere to mature.

Two buzzards being mobbed by a murder of crows. Song thrush singing fit to bust (on another thread too!). Still no daffs open, but there are some along The Road which have a sunnier aspect than our north-easters.

B - Ahh, Spring, even in it's confused state it's amazing.

Yesterdays count
4 Hares
First 2, then one sitting on a rise,
And then another running!
One heron standing
A buzzard or two
3 tractors.