March 15th, 1999

Many plants around the grounds are now showing obvious signs of growth. The illustrations on this page show blackthorn, which is just beginning to produce its distinctive white flowers in the hedgerows. The flowers always appear before the leaves and often turn whole sections of hedgerow white. Blackthorn belongs to the genus prunus and within the gardens a number of ornamental prunus species and varieties are beginning to bloom. Some of these are much more gaudy than the blackthorn.

The two species of woodpecker, green and greater spotted, have been quite noisy recently. The green woodpecker can be heard calling at all times of the day and at some distance and the greater spotted woodpeckers are busy drumming early every morning.

The frogs in Great Garden have yet to produce frogspawn but there is, unfortunately, a large clump in the bottom of another pond which has recently been drained and partially filled in. I am told that this pond is to be reinstated but it will be too late for the frogs in the present breeding season.

Small numbers of fieldfares have been present in the past week but there are still no redwings. The fieldfares should soon be moving back to Scandinavia but will be replaced at the end of this month or early in April by the summer visitors, such as willow warblers.