On the 3rd, after
a gap of several weeks, I saw a group of about seven
fieldfares near the school, in a hedgerow at the 'Meeting
of the Waters'. This is at As the snowdrops
begin to fade away, crocuses are coming into bloom.
Although these garden varieties are not native plants,
they can be useful to honeybees and other insects which
are active at this time of year. In recent weeks, on mild
days, bees have collected pale yellow pollen from
snowdrops but now they can be seen with loads of vivid
orange pollen from the crocuses. Unlike honey, pollen
does not store very well so, in spring, bees are eager to
collect fresh supplies. The pollen is the source of
protein for the developing grubs and will be I am still waiting for the frogs in Great garden to produce the first blobs of frogspawn. Their lateness now seems even more puzzling to me because I was in the northern pennines, near Dufton,with a group of students at the weekend and we saw that the frogs in that area had started breeding, despite the harshness of the climate. The pools of water in which we saw frogspawn were on the edge of open moorland which is still in the grip of winter weather. |